Spanish scientific journals on Psychology (II): editorial quality, visibility, internationality and editors attitude towards Open Access

This paper aims to present the situation of Spanish Psychology journals with regard to certain quality parameters obtained from two Spanish journal evaluation systems (RESH and DICE), Latindex and others.First of all, the publishing profile is analyzed in relation to the publication frequency compliance and other international standards for scientific publications. In addition, the level of international dissemination of Spanish Psychology journals in international databases is also examined, as a reflection of its quality and the interest that such a journal provokes in the scientific community. The best ten Spanish journals are identified according to the parameters considered in DICE: compliance with the publication frequency established, variety of institutions that contribute articles to the journal (contribution openness), variety of institutions represented at the editorial board (editorial board openness), if it has a peer review system, the number of Latindex criteria that the journal fulfils and its level of presence in international databases. Finally, editors’ attitude towards online journals and Open Access as well as the internationality of editorial boards and authorship are analysed. Some results: a) most journals follow international publishing conventions and watch for the timeliness of publication; b) a third of the journals are well represented in international databases; c) taking into account six quality criteria, there are 25-30 high level or competitive journals; d) a cautious attitude towards OA is observed in Spanish Psychology journals; e) according to the “internationality” of Psychologyas a scientific domain, journals must make an effort to include foreign members in their advisory or scientific boards in order to attract papers from other countries. Around 20 journals have good levels of foreign authors and advisors. Key words: psychology; scientific communication; information dissemination; databases; journals;evaluation; open access; online publishing; Spain