Brazilian scientific journals that use the Open Journal Systems (OJS): a quality analysis

Abstract

This study aims to assess the quality of Brazilian journals that use the Open Journal Systems (OJS) in order to be published. For this purpose, the main criteria used to assess quality were sought in the available literature, and a selection was made of those considered to be of great relevance. The universe of the research was comprised of journals that were correctly registered under their respective subject heading in the system website by June 2010, a total of 236. The sample's nature is intentional and, according to the established criteria, 78 journals were selected for the study. The quality aspects evaluated were: editorial board, authors, rules for article submission, peer review, age, format, language of publication and the journal impact. The criteria were assessed by indicating the presence/absence of the quality indicator or by attributing a poor/reasonable/good, quality scale, according to the criterion assessed. The results indicate that the criteria established for authors, rules for article submission, and format were positively evaluated. The editorial board was also positively assessed, although 38% of the journals analysed did not present the composition of this group on their websites. The peer review criterion was negatively assessed, since only 17% of the journals correctly inform how the article evaluation process occurs and what criteria are used in the assessment of the submitted articles. Furthermore, it was identified the existence of a moderate positive relation between the H-index of the journals and their ages, and that there is no correlation between the language of article publication and the H-index of the journals.