Indicators will help assess quality of OA journals

Researchers in the Netherlands are developing an international quality test for new open-access journals.

The test will combine two indicators. The first, being developed at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, will look at the quality of the editorial board. The second, being developed by researchers at the Universities of Amsterdam and Tilburg, will assess the peer-review process.

The indicators will be assessed by a forum of international experts during the international Open Access week in October 2012. The experts will include representatives of research funding bodies, the editors-in-chief of academic journals and publishers.

Once the quality test has been released, publishers will be able to indicate the “score” that their journals have achieved. This is expected to assist authors in choosing which journals to publish in.

The initiative is being organised by SURF (the national higher education and research partnership for ICT), Amsterdam University Press and CWTS and supported by the national research funder the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).