Criteria for Inclusion

Journals can be submitted by publishers, members of the editorial board or others affiliated with a journal, including researchers, research assistants, librarians or others involved in research processes.

Remember that all the information must be publically available on the journal's website.

erih+ is an index serving the European Research Area. Please consider if the journal is relevant for European research or researchers before you submit.

General

Only scientific periodicals/journals will be evaluated. Books, monographic series, and conference proceedings are currently not included.

• The journal must have a valid ISSN code, confirmed by the International ISSN Portal.
• The journal must have been active for at least two years. The fulfilment of the requirements for inclusion will be determined by reviewing the last two years of published issues.
• Each issue of the journal should contain at least 5 research articles.
• All original articles must be accompanied by abstracts in English.
• Information about the institutional affiliations must be available for all authors.

The website

The journal must have a functional website, containing the following information:

• The journal’s ISSN.
• A complete list of the members of the editorial board, including their institutional affiliation and academic title (see separate section for a more detailed description).
• An archive containing, as a minimum, the last two years of publication.

The website must contain a description of:

• the journal’s aim, its theme and its intended audience.
• the journal’s peer review process (see separate section for a more detailed description)
• the periodicity of publication. If a journal describes itself as publishing twice a year, then the publication history must confirm this.
• the journal’s guidelines for ethical publishing.
• the journal’s guidelines concerning copyright.
• the journal’s guidelines concerning plagiarism.
• the journal’s policies concerning Open Access publishing.
• the journal’s policies concerning Article Processing Charges (APC)

Peer Review

• The peer review process must be described clearly and in detail on the journal’s website. It is not sufficient to simply state that articles are peer reviewed.
• Editors must ensure that there is no conflict of interest between authors and reviewers.

Editorial Board

• The journal must have a scientific editorial board consisting of at least 3 members.
• A complete list of the members of the editorial board, including their institutional affiliation and academic title should be openly accessible on the journal’s website.
• If the journal is published by a university or other institutions, at least one-third of the editorial board should be from another institution than the one publishing the journal.

Authorship

• Author affiliations must be accessible for all authors publishing in the journal.
• The authorship of a journal must be national or international, but cannot be local.
• The authorship is local if more than two-thirds of the authors from the last two years of publication are from the same institution.

European relevance

European relevance is assessed contextually and qualitatively, with reference to the journal’s aims, scope, publishing practices, and relationship to European research communities.

A journal may demonstrate European relevance in one or more of the following ways:

1. Thematic and disciplinary orientation

• The journal addresses topics related to European societies, cultures, histories, languages, or institutions.
• The journal contributes to research traditions that are particularly well established or distinctive within Europe.

2. Linguistic and cultural role

• The journal supports scholarly communication in European languages central to national or regional research communities.
• The journal contributes to maintaining linguistic diversity in scholarly publishing.

3. Integration in European research communities

• The journal is embedded in European scholarly networks.
• Its primary audience includes European research communities.
• It plays a recognised role within European disciplinary or regional fields.

4. Institutional connections

• Presence of editorial board members affiliated with European institutions.
• Regular publication of authors affiliated with European institutions.
• Submission by persons affiliated with European institutions.

No single indicator is decisive. Assessment is based on an overall qualitative judgement of the journal’s contribution to scholarly communication in Europe.

Special issues

• Special issues are the editor’s responsibility, and the journal’s rules and guidelines are applicable.
• Special issues should demonstrate a well-defined thematic cohesion between their articles, and the theme must bear a clear relation to the aims and scope of the journal.
  

Read more about Best practices and Transparency.