Star System

Star System for Journal Quality

Updated: 2012-10-29

A.    Basic Principles

  1. Articles out of the journal’s scope must be rejected.
  2. Articles published fully or partly in other publications /websites shall not be reviewed or accepted.
  3. The acceptance of a paper is determined by the average of all reviewers’ grades.
  4. Plagiarism is detected using CrossCheck (Powered by iThenticate)

           4.1 The Similarity Index includes the quotes but excludes the bibliography.

           4.2 For a Similarity Index >30%: the article should be rejected, but the author(s) may revise and resubmit.

           4.3 For a similarity Index ≤30%:

                 4.3.1 If single source matches are ≤6% of the total matches found: the editor or editorial assistant arranges a review.

                 4.3.2 If single source matches are >6% of the total matches found: the editor or editorial assistant should track the matches containing the most words carefully to decide the status of paraphrasing, summarising, quoting, or plagiarism. The editor or editorial assistant then has three options:

                           4.3.2.1 Ask author(s) to revise and resubmit.

                           4.3.2.2 Arrange peer review: if the article passes the peer review, ask the author(s) to revise to meet the criteria.

                           4.3.2.3 Report this case to the editor-in-chief or an associate editor for decision.

            4.4 Self-plagiarism is plagiarism. It shall be treated the same as regular plagiarism.

            4.5 The editors or editorial assistants may check the similarity indexes of articles more than once to ensure that all published articles meet the above criteria for a similarity index ≤30% and single source matches are not >6%.

      5. Resubmitted articles shall be treated as new submissions.

      6. If the editor or editorial assistants cannot find suitable reviewers from the editorial board, they should find reviewers outside the editorial board, such as from the article reference lists, authors, databases or other sources.

      7. Special cases shall be reported to the editor-in-chief or an associate editor for decision.

B.    Star Level

Star

Number of Reviewers

Average Grade for Each Article

Acceptance Rate

Impact Factor

Index Requirement

1

≥1

≥2.50

≤70%

NA

NA

2

≥2

≥2.75

≤60%

NA

NA

3

≥2

≥3.00

≤50%

NA

NA

4

≥2

≥3.25

≤40%

NA

NA

5

≥2

≥3.50

≤30%

NA

NA

6

≥2

≥3.75

≤20%

NA

NA
  • All articles accepted should meet the basic principles and requirements of the corresponding star level.
  • Each star represents the journal’s overall quality level. All articles published in the journal must meet the minimum standard for the corresponding star level.
  • Number of Reviewers: the editor or editorial assistants must find this minimum number of reviewers to review the article.
  • Average Grade for Each Article: the average of all the article’s reviewers’ grades. It is the minimum score for accepting the article.
  • Acceptance rate: the ratio of accepted articles and received articles, based on quarterly and yearly statistics. (The acts of acceptance and receiving take place in the designated time frame.)
  • Above rules are not applicable to special issues that are reviewed by other institutions, and special cases that are determined by the editor-in-chief or associate editor.

C.     Grading

  1. Grading takes place in December of each year. The publisher selects samples from newest issues (6 issues/semimonthly, 3 issues/monthly, 2 issues/quarterly and others) for grading. For example, if all articles in the sample issues meet the standard of 2 stars, the journal will be awarded a 2-star designation.
  2. Journals that fail to meet the 1-star minimum standard will be either terminated, or the editor (editorial assistant) will be changed.