Asia Journal Index

Inclusion criteria

These are the whole basis of an inclusion decision. Each is pass or fail, checked against the journal's own public pages, with the evidence recorded and shown on the journal's entry.

There is no score at this stage and no weighting between criteria. A journal meets every mandatory criterion or it is not indexed. Metrics are computed afterwards, for journals already accepted, and play no part in whether a journal gets in.

  1. Registered ISSN

    An ISSN registered with the ISSN International Centre, displayed on the journal site and matching the title.

  2. Editorial board with named affiliations

    A public page listing editors by full name with institutional affiliation. A list of bare names does not pass.

  3. Peer review process described

    The review type is named and the process described, including at least two independent reviewers per submission.

  4. Licence stated and linked

    The licence is named AND hyperlinked to the licence deed (e.g. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A name alone does not pass.

  5. Explicit open access statement

    A statement of what readers may do with the content, on the journal site.

  6. Fees stated, or absence of fees stated

    APCs, submission fees and any other charges are stated with amounts, or the journal states plainly that it charges nothing.

  7. Digital preservation policy

    A named preservation arrangement (PKP PN, CLOCKSS, Portico, a national library deposit) and a statement of it.

  8. Persistent identifiers optional

    DOIs, or another persistent identifier, registered for articles and resolving correctly.

  9. At least twelve months of publishing history

    One year of content, or five research articles, whichever comes first.

  10. No misleading metrics displayed

    The journal does not display an invented or unverifiable impact factor or index score.

  11. Publication ethics statement

    A statement covering misconduct, plagiarism screening, corrections and retractions.

  12. Named contact

    A named editorial contact with an email address on the journal's own domain where possible.

Apply to be indexed

How a decision is made

  1. A journal applies, or is identified from a public listing.
  2. Each criterion above is checked against the journal's public pages, and the URL or quotation relied on is recorded as evidence.
  3. The result is published on the journal's entry, including any criterion that failed.
  4. A journal that does not meet a mandatory criterion may fix the gap and re-apply. There is no waiting period and no fee.

Removal

An indexed journal that stops meeting a mandatory criterion is removed, and the removal is published with its reason. An index that only ever adds journals is a directory.

Appeals

A publisher who believes a criterion was misapplied may say so, pointing at the evidence recorded against it. Where the evidence is wrong, the decision is corrected and the entry updated.