Addis Ababa University

Senate Research and Publication Committee

March 27, 2009

Criteria for Assessing the Reputability of Professional Journals

Professional reputation and competence of editors, advisory board members and editorial staff

1. Editor(s)

1.1. Should preferably hold a Ph.D. or equivalent, with a minimum of five publications and must be professional experienced in his/her field. The publications must be peer-reviewed articles published in reputable journals.

1.2. Editors of journals published by the Faculties of Law, Medicine and Technology are not required to hold a PhD degree, but shall have specialty training.

2. Editorial Board members

2.1. Should have comparable qualifications as the editor.

3. Advisory Board members

3.1. Should have comparable or higher qualification and experience than members of the Editorial Board with the exception of a few members needed for their special services.

3.2. The composition of the board must reflect various disciplines covered by the journals.

4. Soundness of the Editorial Policy

Assessment of the soundness of the editorial policy of the journal should be based on the following criteria:

4.1. Anonymity of referees chosen to review articles

4.2. Anonymity of authors (preferably)

4.3. The number of major papers in a given issue must be at least five

4.4. Regularity within the expected time of publication

4.5. Author and subject index

5. The Seriousness of Purpose

Assessment of the seriousness of purpose of the journal as a medium for professional development will be based on the following:

5.1. At the time of evaluation a journal should have bibliographic citation in at least in one of the major abstracting / indexing services1 in addition to three years of continuous publications2 with ISSN number.

5.2. Less than six months of lag period at the time of evaluation or not at all.

5.3. Consistency in cover format, dimension and cover page contents (should contain the volume number, frequency of publication, list of members of editorial and advisory board members, and instruction to authors at a visible site).

5.4. Only professionally related commercial publicity.

5.5. Appropriate documentation of manuscript processing from submission to final publication with all correspondences and copies included.

5.6. There should be adequate office facilities and staff that handle articles and the associated documents.

6. Miscellaneous

Reputable journals are also required to have the following forms:

6.1. Acknowledgement card/receipt form

6.2. Letter to the referee including the template for reviewing an article

6.3. Reminder letter (used if not response comes from the referee)

6.4. Letter to the author (used when modifications are expected to be made by the author)

6.5. Acceptance card (to get printing approval) from the author)

6.6. Journals shall be assessed for their reputability every three years.

7. Other supplementary information to be provided by the journal

7.1. The number of regular subscribers (both individual and institutional; both internal and external)

7.2. The average circulation

7.3. The acceptance/rejection rate of articles