Access the recording at http://webinar.assaf.org.za/playback/presentation/0.9.0/playback.html?meetingId=64bc87cc9da0731f5d8fc426bf700e593aeddd92-1479448454255

1. General Criteria for Publishing High
Quality Open Access Journals -
Checklist
Susan Veldsman

2. Scholarly Publishing Programme
Increase visibility, accessibility & searchability of SA
accredited scholarly journals
Improve quality of SA scholarly journals, books &
conference proceedings
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Strategic Objective 1
Strategic Objective 2

3. Peer-review of Journals (1)
• In 2007 ASSAf, with the support of the NSEF, was mandated by
the Department of Education and the Department of Science
and Technology to carry out peer reviews of all SA research
journals.
• In response to the need for a system of quality assurance for
scholarly journals that are accredited by the DHET.
• Subject grouped titles sharing a particular broad disciplinary
focus.
• The report makes recommendations to DHET in terms of DHET
accreditation and SciELO SA inclusion. The report also includes
the findings of the Peer Review Panel in terms of the journal’s
quality and operations.
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4. Peer-review of Journals
• Titles reviewed to date: 145
Agriculture, Social Sciences, Religion, Health, Law and
Humanities: Language and Linguistics
• Titles to be reviewed (current): 162
Currently under review
• Engineering and Architecture (15)
• Humanities II: Visual and Performing Arts (10)
• Communication and Information Science (14)
Panels being established
• Education (17)
• Politics, History and Philosophy (26)
• Mathematics and Science (22)
Panels to be established
• Economics and Business Management (27)
• Other disciplines (31)
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5. PRELIMINARY QUESTIONNAIRE DIRECTED TO EDITORS BY THE PEER REVIEW PANEL
Please type in a short answer, just after each question, and send us your consolidated response as an
MSWord document.
You are requested to examine hard copies of issues published over the last 3 years of the above-listed
journals in your institutional library, and, if at all possible, to provide opinions on/answers to all the questions
listed under item (1) below (these are primarily focused on the content and significance of the journals,
and not on operational issues) :
Item 1: Do the hard copies of the last 2-3 years of issues of the journal reflect:
1. high national/international disciplinary reputations/standing of the editor-in-chief/ associate
editors/members of the editorial board?
2. a high/good (general/average) quality of the articles accepted/published?
3. a (contextually) adequate/good number of articles per annum?
4. an (adequate/good) sample of the best work done in the country in the discipline/field?
5. a focus on local/regional kinds of materials/problems?
6. publication of articles by authors from across the country, and internationally?
7. useful additional scholarly features like editorials, topical reviews, book reviews, scholarly
correspondence, etc?
8. proper (English-language) abstracts for all articles?
9. suitable publication of errata?
1.10 good citation practice?
1.10 good presentation, lay-out, style and copy-editing interventions?
1.10 suitability as a general on-going stimulus for local graduate
students/young staff in the discipline concerned?
1.11 some kind of comparability with leading international journals in the
field?
Item 2: You are also requested to provide suggestions for an improvement programme for each of the
journals concerned?

6. QUESTIONNAIRE DIRECTED TO EDITORS BY
THE PEER REVIEW PANEL
Please type in a short answer, just after each question, and send us your
consolidated response as an MSWord document.
(a) Editorial process-related criteria (generally based on the “National Code of
Best Practice in Editorial discretion and Peer Review” developed by ASSAf):
- For how many years has your journal been published?
- Have there been significant interruptions in publication?
- How many peer-reviewed original papers have you published during the last three
years: Articles?
Letter-type articles?
Reviews?
- How many manuscripts (of all three types) were received in the same period?
- Approximately how many manuscripts of all three types were rejected without peer
review?
- What proportion of papers of all three types that you published had at least one
author with a non-South African address?

7. http://www.assaf.org.za/index.php/publications/evi
dence-based-reports

8. Online Journal System (OJS) Pilot Project
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http://journals.assaf.org.za/

9. Trusted List of OA Journal Titles
• Journal management & publishing system, web site – all
in one
• Licensed as Open Source Software
• Developed by Public Knowledge Project (PKP) & Simon
Fraser University
• Community of developers
• Download and install on local server
https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/
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DOAJ

10. • Publish in journals accredited by the SA Dept. Of
Higher Education and Training (DHET) (± R 118 000-
00 per article)
• See 6 lists accredited by DHET
• High Impact Factor (IF) journals
• International acknowledged journals specially those
in their fields
What do Authors prefer?

12. About the Journal

13. Journal Articles - technical

14. Journal Articles - content

15. Journal Financial Sustainability

16. Journal Visibility & Impact

17. Journal Guidelines

18. Journal Policies & Statements

21. Journal Roles & Responsibilities

26. Publishing agreement
• Right to publish
• Assign DOI
• Copyright author
• Author warranties
• Not published before
• Not under consideration with other journals
• Unlawful statements
• Defamatory material
• Ethics
• All authors listed
• Have rights to publish
• IR depositing
• ASSAf
• When accepted—ASSAf must publish
• Not accepted—author free to publish elsewhere
• All the authors must sign agreement

28. Layout and Design

29. File Formats: PDF
Author names, affiliations
and contact information
clearly visible. Space
options for ORCIDs.
How to cite
information,
with the DOI
displayed.
Licencing
information
Clickable DOI in reference list,
for easy citation information

30. EPUB In-article table of contents. With
clickable links
Ability to enlarge letter size.
Compatible with screen sizes.

31. EPUB
Links to online citations
Search ability and screen size
adaption

32. Your Journal Online

33. Google Analytics
In-depth analytics on site visits,
bounce rates and page views
Customisable time
Browser data
Overview of countr
with most visitsEasy reporting on
monthly/quarterly/annual or
per issue details

35. Dissemination of your content

36. Electronic Newsletters and Table of Contents
Electronic
highlights email
with each issue,
using
Mailchimp.com
Access to the full
issues
Links to social
media pages
Full electronic Table of Contents
Mailchimp is a free-to-use online service for
building and sending electronic newsletters.

38. • To generate a wider interest and increase awareness from the public
• To create a large following
• To encourage interaction and build relationships with readers and to provide a platform for authors and readers
to communicate with the SAJS
• To encourage submissions, downloads/access
• To encourage visibility of the journal
Social Media

39. Questions? Thank you!
Susan Veldsman
Director: ASSAf Scholarly Publishing Unit
susan@assaf.org.za