OJOP Accreditation Board Directive

Article 1 – The purpose of this directive is to regulate the working procedures and principles of the Accreditation Board, which will be established in order to supervise the quality and standards of academic and scientific journals within the scope of the activities of OJOP Index, to produce solutions for their problems, to create an infrastructure for the cooperation of the journal editorial team, to produce solutions by organizing training, webinars and consultation meetings on coordination and integration between journals, to promote and support journals that meet the appropriate criteria in national and international indexes. This directive covers the structure of the Accreditation Board, its formation, election of board members, duties and powers, working style and terms of office.

Basis

Article 2 – This directive has been prepared within the framework of the Turkish Press Law, World Press Professional Ethics, Turkish Right to Information Law No. 4982, Turkish Code of Obligations and the provisions on copyrights regulated within this scope, as well as the UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF LAW in a transnational, multinational environment, within the framework of Universal Press Professional Principles, OJOP Index & Directory Charter and ICAM Network publishing ethical principles, as OJOP’s founding country is Turkey.

Definitions

Article 3 – In this direction.

– Board: OJOP Index, Academic and Scientific Journals Indexing Accreditation Board,

– Journal: Periodical scientific peer-reviewed journals that produce academic and scientific content and are published physically and/or electronically,

– Index: National and international academic databases and indexes in general and OJOP Index & Database in particular,

– Accreditation: Determining the suitability of journals for indexing according to the determined quality standards

– Accreditation Board Science Areas; The science areas created by OJOP Index by taking into account the science areas determined / defined and accredited by OECD countries, especially Turkey,

Duties and powers of the Accreditation Board

Article 4 –The duties and powers of the Accreditation Board are as follows:

1. To determine accreditation criteria for academic and scientific journals,

2. To review and evaluate the journals that apply,

3. To approve or reject indexing eligibility,

4. To make suggestions and provide guidance to improve the quality of journals,

5. To conduct periodic audits to renew accreditation,

6. To cooperate with national and international academic databases,

7. Organising workshops and training programmes with journal editors and editorial boards when deemed necessary.

Article 5- The Accreditation Board consists of 10 scientific fields. Each scientific field consists of 5 members (1 Board Chairman and 4 Full Members).

a.   Accreditation Board Science Areas;

1 Educational Sciences

2 Science and Mathematics

3 Law Sciences

4 Architecture, Planning and Design, Arts Sciences

5 Engineering Sciences

6 Health Sciences

7 Social, Humanities and Administrative Sciences

8 Agriculture, Forestry, Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries Sciences

9 Theology Sciences

10 Sports Sciences

1. The Accreditation Board is elected from among those who have been actively working as Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Editor, Deputy Editor, Publication Editor or at least Index Editor for at least 1 year, or who have previously held at least one of these positions for at least 2 years.

2. The Chairman of the Board shall be elected for 2 years by the members of the Board from among themselves or by nomination from the OJOP General Assembly upon the proposal of at least 10 members of the Board.

3. The term of office of the Board Members is 2 years.

4. Expired members may be reappointed for a maximum of three times.

5- Members may hold more than one office in the Boards of Scientific Areas.

6. The membership of the Board may become vacant due to resignation, being found guilty by the judicial bodies due to a transaction or action incompatible with the universal ethical principles required by the duty, or death. In the event of a vacancy exceeding one tenth of the total number of members, new members shall be offered to replace them.

Meetings and Decision Making

Article 6 – The Accreditation Board convenes at least 4 (four) times a year. The meeting call is made by the Chairman of the Board. The meeting agenda is notified to the members at least 7 (seven) days in advance.

Decisions are taken by majority of votes. In case of equality of votes, the vote of the Chairman of the Board shall be decisive.

Each unit commissions convene by absolute majority and take decisions by absolute majority. A journal editor cannot attend the meeting where his/her own journal is discussed.

Conditions for Accreditation Application

1. Completion of at least ‘D’ level publishing and menu standards is the minimum requirement for pre-acceptance.

2. At least 5 articles must be published for each issue.

3. Journals must have maintained their status for two years after applying for accreditation, and if these conditions are not met, the journals will be removed from the Basic Index list.

4. There should be institutional distribution in the Editorial and Advisory Boards and at least 1/3 of the editorial board should consist of different institutions or at least different faculties. If the journal is international, one third of this board should consist of foreign institutions or universities.

1.    Status-granting decisions

2.    Decisions on the finalisation of the appeal

3.    Decisions in the form of Advisory Reports

4.    Decisions on evaluations

5.    Decisions on process control

Accreditation Application Process

1. To apply to the OJOP Index via the web for the journal that has published at least one issue and received ISSN,

2. Within 30 days, OJOP, the evaluation board reviews the relevant journal and puts it on the agenda.

3. The status of the applicant journals is updated in the list on the web page every 30 days.

4. Journals that are not included in the list within 30 days are deemed rejected. The rejection decision is notified to the relevant journal in an official letter with justification.

Accreditation Evaluation Process

1. Applicant journals are evaluated by the Accreditation Board in terms of institutionalisation, structure and content within the framework of OJOP Accreditation principles.

2. Evaluations are made at A, B, C, D journal levels.

3. Journals are divided into index categories by the Accreditation Scientific Subcommittees according to their fields of knowledge.

4. An acceptance letter is prepared for each categorised journal and the relevant journal is notified by official letter.

5. In case of missing information, documents or documents, the relevant journal is given an additional period of maximum 30 days.

The evaluation of the board is made according to the ‘OJOP DIRECTORY & INDEXING Journal, Book, Congress Evaluation Guidelines’ and within the framework of the principles of law and ethics.

1. Journals can submit their objections regarding their applications to OJOP via info@ojop.org in official letter within 30 days.

2. Responses to the objections are made by official letter.

3. The objection periods are finalised within a period of at least 30 days each time.

4. A journal that has previously applied for indexing cannot apply again until 60 days have passed after the objection and a new issue has been published since the application.

Accreditation Decision Process

The cases of a journal that has applied to the OJOP Index are finalised within 6 months at the latest from the date of application.

Appeal Committee

The objection commission consists of at least three people and one commission chairman attends each meeting on a rotating basis. The chairman of the relevant commission cannot attend the meeting where the objected journal will be discussed.

Article 7 – The accreditation applications of journals are evaluated within the framework of the forms and criteria determined by the Board.

1. The application is made by the editors or responsible managers of the journal.

2. The Board examines the journal within 90 days at the latest from the date of application and notifies its decision.

3. If the accreditation is accepted, the journal is introduced to the relevant national or international indexes.

Article 8 – OJOP Accreditation Board, scientific sub-commissions, in the process after the founding board, we consist of at least 5 member country representatives of each commission. In each sub-commission and board, attention is paid to the distribution of provinces throughout the country for the founding members and to ensure that the distribution of countries is balanced for the period after the founding members. In each board and commission, there should be representatives from at least 5 provinces (for founding members), and for memberships for the post-founding member period, there should be representatives from at least 5 different countries. If this distribution does not ensure regular and stable participation, it is obligatory to have representatives from at least three countries.

Confidentiality and Impartiality

Article 9 – Board members are obliged to keep the information they obtain during the evaluation process confidential. The Board acts in accordance with the principle of impartiality and avoids conflicts of interest. Before taking office, the members of the Board read and sign the text of the oath prepared within the framework of ethical principles and standards sent to them by OJOP.

International Integration and Accreditation and Language Preferences

Article 10 – The OJOP Accreditation Board Directive provides equal and fair service to all scientific journals of the world within the scope of the OJOP Index & Directory charter. All guidelines are prepared in English and Turkish. In case of conflicts in terminology and processes, the terms of the directive prepared in English shall take precedence.

Enforcement

Article 11 – This directive shall enter into force upon approval by the OJOP General Assembly. Within the framework of developing technology and facilities, the Accreditation Board calls the General Assembly to an extraordinary meeting and ensures the approval of the new / updated draft directive.

In the event of a change in the directive, in order to prevent damage to the rights of the journals evaluated within the scope of the index and to avoid conflicts of interest with third parties, the rights gained during the period when the directive is in force are evaluated within the scope of ‘protection of vested rights’ in the universal principles of law.

Execution

Article 12 – This directive is executed by the OJOP Term President on behalf of the OJOP Index & Directory Board of Directors.