There has been a proliferation of special issues recently. DOAJ is responding to concerns from the community by adding new criteria to its Basic criteria. After today, all new applications submitted must comply with them.
We work hard to ensure we only include trustworthy journals in the directory. We have responded to concerns around the proliferation of special issues in scholarly publishing and added some additional criteria around the use of special issues, which we are now sharing with our community.
Special issues have been around for decades. Publication of article collections on a particular theme in a special issue can be a useful way of highlighting important or topical work or curating information in focused or niche research areas. Special issues are typically managed by guest editors, who propose or are invited to edit an issue in a topical subject area. These guest editors may invite or commission papers and oversee the entire peer review process.
However, in recent years, publishers have started to use special issues as a way of driving journal growth and revenues. In some journals, the number of articles published in special issues far exceeds the number of articles in regular issues. This has led to widespread concerns about the quality of content in these issues, the peer review processes undertaken, aggressive marketing to academics, and even the prospect of fraud. A recent discussion document from COPE proposes a number of best practices for guest-edited collections, including special issues. Following the publication of these guidelines and in consultation with other partners, we have added new criteria to our Guide to Applying that cover the publication of special issues and set standards for journals applying for inclusion in DOAJ. The new criteria are replicated here:
Special issues
Journals that publish special issues or other content curated by guest editors must adhere to these additional criteria:
- The Editor-in-Chief must be responsible for the content of the entire journal, including all special issues, which must fall within the scope of the journal
- Special issue articles must have the same editorial oversight as regular papers, including external peer review, and be clearly labelled
- Journals must ensure that guest editors’ credentials are checked and approved
- The Editor-in-Chief or dedicated board members must oversee the guest editors
- Papers submitted to a special issue by the guest editor(s) must be handled under an independent review process and make up no more than 25% of the issue’s total
DOAJ will not accept a journal if all content in the last year/volume is published as special issues.
All new applications to DOAJ must adhere to these criteria. Any journals previously accepted for inclusion in DOAJ will be removed if they are found to be publishing special issues that do not meet the criteria.
I find these criteria highly appropriate. I have only one question: Does “special issue articles must […] be clearly labelled” mean that in the standalone version (PDF) of every article there should be an explicit reference to the fact that it’s part of a special issue? It’s generally obvious on the journal website, but the PDFs are often shared or accessed independently.
That’s a good question. We haven’t specified that the labelling must be in the PDF, only that it should be clear from the journal website which articles are part of a special issue and which are not. We will review the criteria in a few months after we’ve assessed how they are working, and this is something that we’ll certainly consider.
We agree with these decisions.
We, as the Journal of Urban Academy and the OJOP Journals Platform, pay attention to this issue.
Journals should not abuse this issue. Especially when the special issue goes beyond its purpose, the existence of such journals damages our reputable and quality publishing in terms of image.
We have not made a new application to DOAJ yet. We will submit our application soon.
I support and appreciate this work of DOAJ.
We, in the Journal of Data Science, Informetrics, and Citation Studies (jcitation.org), support this new criteria and will abide by this criteria in the near future.
I am in full concurrence with the DOAJ on this matter of “special issues”.
As a 10-year EiC of an open access journal this arena has been my biggest challenge – the running of special issues as if there were independent satellites of the journal. Guest editors of special issues are often unconstrained in their interpretation of the scope of the journal, seeking to be responsive only to the topic of the special issue. I support the designation on the PDF that the contribution be identified as made to a special or themed issue.
Another area of concern is the publication of review articles. What percentage of a journal’s publications may be review articles before it is designated a “review journal”?