The Global South and the challenge of assessment

Journal Publishing Practices and Standards as a framework

Abstract

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This presentation will present the Journal Publishing Practices and Standards and its implementaion by The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication (INASP) on the Journal On Line project. It will try to see what  different countries have achieved in responding in the system the INASP has put forward.

Open access has undoubtedly allowed a bigger share and spread of scientific and technical information at both green and gold road. The statistics in every key open access site show an increase in the number of freely available data and peer reviewed material. Nevertheless, there is a clear “divide” between countries when it comes to the prestige and recognition for publishing in a Global North or a Global South journal. The reasons are multiple but prejudice about the quality and transparency is the most prominent. The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication (INASP) and its flagship program Journals On Line ( JOL) that encompasses a number of national and regional platforms have established a framework: Journal Publishing Practices and Standards (JPPS), whose goal is to bring these journals up to par and afford them a respectable place among the more established journals. The JPPS framework is made up of 6 levels of quality that determine the standing of the journal: inactive title; new title; no stars; one star; two stars; and three stars. The levels are used to rank and classify the journals. The other goal of JPPS is to give the editors of journals feedback on what to improve and how. We will in this presentation present the framework and show statistics for the different platforms using the star system. We will also present a conclusion on whether the framework has achieved its goals and what journals and countries have achieved a leap forward using the system.