Postulation guidelines for new journals

In views of supporting the postulation process of new journals into the library of Redalyc System of Scientific Information, below you will find the compulsory requirements which have to be met; we add as well some recommendations to facilitate the submission of materials and their online updating. These guidelines take as a basis Redalyc Methodology for journal's assessment, approved by Redalyc Scientific Advisory Committee in April 2008.

I. Structure of the evaluation process

Every journal submitted for its incorporation into Redalyc System will undergo an evaluation process that will develop in several stages. Because of this it is indispensable to carry out a complete and adequate submission in order to facilitate the evaluation and avoid delays in the final resolution:

First stage: postulation by the editor in chief or head editor

The journals postulated to be entered into Redalyc must send the Application Form for New Journals thoroughly filled in and attach all the documents required in the aforementioned form to the official e-mail address (redalyc@gmail.com).

Only the postulations whose documentation complies with all the obligatory requirements will go on to evaluation

The editors are invited to send all information they deem necessary to support the quality of the scientific editorial process the journal follows; nevertheless, no additional document will substitute any of the compulsory requirements.

Once Redalyc System has a full registration of the postulation, the editor will receive a notification on the period during which the evaluation of the postulated journal will be undertaken.

Second stage: evaluation by Redalyc Editorial Board (direction)

Every journal notified on the correct and complete reception of their postulation will be evaluated during the previously scheduled period.

The evaluation of journals will be subjected to Redalyc Methodology for journal's assessment approved by Redalyc Scientific Advisory Committee that contemplates three modules:

Module A - Basic admission criteria: twelve criteria which have to be compulsorily met by every single journal interested in being included into Redalyc library. If any given journal does not satisfactorily complies with these criteria, the evaluation process will be suspended in this stage and it will be considered postponed for its posterior evaluation, when it improves their editorial processes, for which the postulation much start afresh from the first stage.

Module B - Editorial quality general guidelines: if the journal satisfactorily complies with the criteria stated in Module A, it will go on to analyze the twenty-seven criteria linked to the quality of the editorial process.

Module C - Editorial criteria: after the previous criteria, eight qualitative criteria are analyzed in order to identify the editorial practices of the journals. The criteria in this module do not carry any type of score, so even if they are not considered in the process of evaluation for the incorporation of a journal their fulfillment is fundamental for the consolidation of the every scientific organism of dissemination.

For a journal to be included in Redalyc's library, it must fulfill, at least, 82% of the 39 criteria established in modules A and B; taking into account that the 12 criteria in module A are obligatory:

Third stage: Ratification by Redalyc's Scientific Advisory Committee

After the evaluation carried out by the editorial board of Redalyc Scientific Information system, a report is issued with the results of the process and then sent to the members of Redalyc's Scientific Advisory Committee, who analyze each case and recommend or not the inclusion of the journal into the library or not.

The members of the Committee can ask for additional information and can also suggest reconsiderations. Once the approval of all the members of the committee is obtained, the results are notified to the editors. The conditioned journals are called to postulate again, once they meet the missing requirements, and the accredited journals start their process to be included in the System in function of the schedule defined on a basis case by Redalyc System.

II. Evaluation period

Given the large number of journals interested in postulating, Redalyc Scientific Information System has defined two periods a year to evaluate the inclusions of new titles: February and July. Nonetheless, as much as possible, there might be extraordinary evaluation periods mainly in the case of specific projects.

However, the editors interested in postulating their journals can do so at any moment via sending materials to the following e-mail address: redalyc@gmail.com. All postulations will be recorded and, if the materials attached are complete, they will be noticed about the reception and the period during which the journals will be evaluated.

III. General recommendations

Prior to postulation, we recommended performing a self-evaluation exercise, which enables the editor to v alue the editorial characteristics of their journal, as well as make improvements before postulation. Said e xercise might be received at: redalyc@gmail.com. To do so, the following supportive documents can be c onsulted:

• Supportive guideline: graphically explains each of the modules, criteria and evaluation parameters.
• Postulation manual: it contains graphic examples on what it is considered sufficient or not in each evaluation parameter.

We suggest that every one of the journals with electronic version and want to run an online evaluation v erify that all links work adequately. It is common to find journals whose web pages contain dead links or whose ser vers do not respond whenever information is required. This, in addition to delay the evalua- tion pr ocess, becomes evaluations with low scores non-attributable to editorial quality, but to technical pr oblems that can be easily solved by the administrators of the electronic pages. If along the evaluation pr ocess we notice this sort of problems, the assessment of the journal will be postponed until the next period and the r esponsible editor will be notified about the situation.

We invite the editors whose journals have both a printed and an electronic format to homologate the in formation presented in said supports, as well as making sure that the information provided in different electr onic sites of the journal is updated and the same for every source.

Redalyc system integrates into its policies certain mechanisms of direct access to its library for those ac ademic journals that besides covering the minimal requirements have:

• Updated and verifiable registration in regional and international databases, which resort to thorough evaluation processes of scientific procedures.
• An endorsement by scientific and/or governmental institutions, such as councils of science and technology -or their peers- in each country.

It is because of this that we invite the journals that cover these requirements to send us every item of information which facilitates its direct admission. However, it is necessary to stress that if a journal is automatically admitted, this does not exempt it to be assessed under the parameters established in Redalyc's methodology.