Enhancement of the quality of journals through peer review August 13, 2009
Posted by Thabo in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing , trackbackThe ASSAf process of discipline-grouped peer review of journals in the fields of agriculture and related basic life sciences, as well as in the social sciences and related fields, is being done according to criteria developed by the CSPiSA and approved by the ASSAf Council.
The process comprises a thorough evaluation of questionnaires completed by the respective editors, and separate independent reviews of the individual journals by peers. At the completion of the peer review process, the Panels concerned would make recommendations in Reports submitted to the ASSAf Council via the CSPiSA; if approved, the Reports would be in the public domain.
The full methodology of the grouped reviews serially involved the identification by the CSPiSA of the disciplines to be reviewed, and approval by the ASSAf Council. The next step in the methodology involves invitations to ASSAf members to volunteer to serve on the panels, and a public invitation for nomination on the ASSAf website and via e-mail. At the end of this phase, the CSPiSA composes a preferred list of candidates for the two Panels, with proposed chairpersons and deputy chairpersons in each case.
Following the approval of the Panel members by the ASSAf Council, the chairpersons draw up a user-friendly, mainly logistics-focused questionnaire administered to the editors of identified journals within the two disciplines. A list of independent peer reviewers for grouped disciplines would then be composed using the ASSAf Membership list and the NRF grants register, amongst other databases.
The peer review process of SA scholarly journals will feed into the SciELO-South Africa platform which the Academy is spearheading; a group of pilot journals has already been placed on this platform.
Another aspect of the Report will focus on the accreditation of peer-reviewed journals by the DoHE. The DoHE had agreed to consider moving on a new system of accreditation involving the ASSAf peer reviews, if the system could be shown to be working.
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cheers