New journal checklist

Background

The following checklist includes the most common considerations for starting up a new journal.

Journal set up and general information

• Journal name
• Domain name (optional)
• Aims and scope
• Target audience
• Business model
  • Open access statement (if applicable)
• Peer review model
• ISSN
• Journal subject keywords
• Abstracting and indexing
• Language of publication
• Article types (for example research papers, book reviews, etc.)
• Article formats
• Acceptance of supplementary material

Staffing

• Editor in chief
• Editorial board
• Reviewers
• Reporting (submissions, publication times, etc.)
• Publicity
• Continuity and succession: terms, recruiting reviewers, board members

Policies and documentation

• Author submission guidelines
  • Author template
• Author publishing agreement / copyright policy
  
  • Standard license (e.g. Creative Commons)
• Peer review guidelines
• Authorship policy and dispute resolution
• Research misconduct policy
• Conflict of interest policy

Workflow information

• Continuous or by-issue publication
• Publication frequency and scheduling
• Expected first issue (date)
• Submission platform/system
• Recruiting submissions
• Desk review of submissions
• Routing submissions for peer review
• Communication with authors
• Copy editing
• Production of galleys (i.e. PDF or HTML versions of accepted papers)
• Proofing
• Assigning articles to issues
• DOIs