This policy establishes the criteria for selecting journals for inclusion in Journalytics. Inclusion in Journalytics is by invitation only. Cabell's Review Board uses the criteria to evaluate all journals for indexing in Journalytics.
The following criteria are used to evaluate and qualify journals for inclusion in Journalytics:
- Audience
- The audience for all publications indexed in Journalytics includes academics, administrators, business persons, counselors, librarians, practicing teachers, and/or practitioners.
- Relevance
- To be considered for inclusion in Journalytics, journals must be directly related to the fields covered by the database. The database spans all aspects of accounting, economics and finance, management, marketing, educational curriculum and methods, education psychology and administration, educational technology and library science, psychology and psychiatry, computer science and business information systems, health administration, nursing, mathematics, astronomy, biological science, chemistry, geology, oceanography, physics.
- Sponsorship
- Sponsorship by professional associations and organizations, and government agencies is considered, but not required, in the evaluation process. Preference for inclusion in Journalytics is given to journals with such sponsorship. The following information is considered in the evaluation of institutions, associations, and organizations:
- History of the organization
- Membership of the organization, in size and credentials
- Structure, composition, and credentials of the governing body
- Organizational activities
- Publications and associated editorial policies
- Quality
- To be considered for inclusion in Journalytics, journals are subject to the following criteria:
- Integrity: Articles published in the journal must be sufficiently protected from unauthorized modifications or falsifications.
- Objectivity: Articles published in the journal must be verified by a review process.
- Substantive Merit: Articles published in the journal must be professional and/or definitive.
- Utility/Importance: Articles published in the journal must be relevant to current priorities in its field and be of interest to the academic community.
- Peer Review
- Journals considered for inclusion are also subject to review of their editorial and peer review policies and processes. Only journals that utilize rigorous peer review will be considered for inclusion in Journalytics.
- “Peer review” is defined as a multi-step process of obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from experts in the field who are not part of the journal's editorial staff before being accepted for publication, in order to eliminate low quality, irrelevant, falsified, or otherwise undesirable submissions. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal's peer review procedures, must be clearly described on the journal's web site.
- Rigorous is defined as exacting and extremely thorough. Rigor can be demonstrated with peer reviewer comments on the quality, validity, and relevance of the manuscript that clearly show that the manuscript has been read and evaluated by the reviewer.
- All of a journal's content, apart from any editorial material that is clearly marked as such, must be subjected to peer review in order to be considered for inclusion in Journalytics.
- Specific requirements include:
- The full names and affiliations of the journal's editors must be provided on the journal's web site as well as contact information for the editorial office.
- Editorial boards or other governing bodies must be comprised of members who are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal's scope.
- Comprehensive written editorial policies must be clearly stated on the journal's web site.
- Specific considerations include:
- Publication history of the journal
- Fidelity to ethical guidelines
- Adherence to editorial conventions
- Opportunity for authors to receive comments made by reviewers
- Methods of article selection and/or invitation
- Anonymous peer review employing at least two reviewers per article is preferred
- Selectivity, as indicated by acceptance rates for submitted articles
- Fees
- Any fees for reviewing and/or publishing in the journal must be clearly stated on the journal's web site in a place that is easy for potential authors to find prior to submitting their manuscripts for review. If there are no charges to authors, this should also be clearly indicated on the journal's web site.
- Methods of journal's finance and revenue sources should be clearly stated on the journal's web site, for example, author fees, subscriptions, reprints, institutional/organizational support, government subsidy, membership dues, advertising charges, fee based, etc.
- The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available to readers and whether there are associated subscription or pay per view fees must be stated.
- Policies
- Comprehensive written publication ethics policies regarding research misconduct, conflicts of interest, and malpractice must be clearly stated on the journal's web site.
- A comprehensive written archiving policy, in the event that the journal is no longer published, must be clearly stated on the journal's web site.
- A comprehensive written copyright and licensing policy must be clearly stated on the journal's web site.
- A comprehensive written open access licensing policy must be clearly stated on the journal's web site, if applicable.
- A comprehensive written article retraction/correction policy must be clearly stated on the journal's web site.
- Journals shall state their advertising policy, if relevant, including what types of ads will be considered, who makes decisions regarding accepting ads and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior (online only) or are displayed at random.
- Publication Practices
- Full contact information for the journal is clearly visible on the web site including a business address.
- Clear and detailed “Instructions for Authors” are present on the web site and easily located from the homepage.
- ISSN's are required and will be verified.
- All journals shall have a clear and functioning web site. Additionally, a journal's web site shall be free of: grammatical errors, prominent misspellings and/or non-functioning links.
- Integrity
- The journal name shall be unique and not be one that is easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors and readers about the journal's origin or association with other journals.
- Information about the ownership and/or management of a journal shall be clearly indicated on the journal's web site. Publishers shall not use organizational names that would mislead potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal's owner.
- Any direct marketing activities used by the journal shall be unobtrusive and appropriate.
- Legal status of the publishing organization shall be disclosed, for example, whether it is a privately-owned or public company, a not-for-profit organization or a charity.
- No evidence of citation manipulation is present in the journal's metrics.
- The following criteria will be taken into consideration when evaluating journals for inclusion in Journalytics, but are not required:
- A complete list of abstracting and indexing services that cover the journal will be examined and verified.
- COPE, WAME, ICMJE, OASPA membership and/or other organizations regarding ethics in research and publication will be considered.
- Whether or not the journal utilizes a plagiarism screening tool will be considered.
Journalytics has an extensive review process for journal inclusion. The Cabell's Review Board may at any time request additional information from the journal, which may include original manuscripts and peer review notes on articles published in the journal. This information is for internal use only and is understood to be confidential. Cabell's will not share this information with anyone outside the company, except where required by law.
Audits are performed annually on all journals included in Cabell's to update the information listed in the database and to confirm that the journals are continuing to meet the selection criteria.
