Useful information for starting an online journal

  mandatory step

Building the editorial project and planning the publishing workflow

It is important to start from planning the editorial project of a new online journal, by predicting the phases of launch and publication fairly in advance. After having defined aims, scope and innovation target for our journal, and after choosing the journal title, we need to draw the business plan and the operational plan. Conditio sine qua non for long-term survival of the journal is the development of a wide and strong network of connections with accredited researchers who will ensure quality and abundance of contributions. A crucial step is the establishment of the working team: defining tasks and requirements from the editorial committee, setting clear editorial policies for the journal (with regard to publication, reviewing and editing criteria, etc.), as well as deciding on the procedures and timeline of the publishing workflow. The typical figures in the editorial team will include: the director (editor in chief), the deputy directors, the scientific committee, the reviewers, the technical secretariat (content manager, editors, graphic designer, proof readers, etc.)

  mandatory step

Registration of the Editor in chief in a special list held by the Journalists' Association

According to the Press Act of 8 February 1948, No. 47, art. 3, "Every newspaper or other periodical must have a responsible editor.
The responsible director must be an Italian citizen (or a Community citizen according to Article 9 of Law No 52 of 6 February 1996) and must have the other requirements for registration on the political electoral roll.
An Italian who does not belong to the Republic may also be a responsible director if he or she meets the other requirements for registration on the political electoral lists.
When the director is invested with a parliamentary mandate, a deputy director must be appointed with the role of responsible."

In Italy, for scientific journals the Editor in chief does not necessarily have to be a member of the Journalists' Association (this is a mandatory condition only for newspapers and magazines), provided that he/she is registered in a special list held by the same Association. The Editor in chief must then make a request to the Regional Council of the Ordine dei giornalisti to be included in the special list. Registration is subject to an initial admission cost, plus an annual fee to be paid in favour of the Journalists' Association.

  mandatory / optional step

Journal registration in Tribunal: when it is mandatory or convenient?

In Italy, it is mandatory to register the titles of traditional (printed) journals in the local Tribunal (see Law 8 February 1948 no. 47). With regard to electronic journals, the Law no.  62/2001 has been interpreted in different ways. However, with the D.L. 9 April 2003, no. 70, art. 7, comma 3, it is now clear that “Registration of the online publishing house is mandatory exclusively for activities for which service providers intend to avail themselves of the provisions set out in Law No. 62” of 7 March 2001".

According to Article 3-bis of Legislative Decree 103/2012, “periodical publications produced only on computer and distributed exclusively online, whose publishers have not applied for public funding, contributions, or concessions and which generate annual revenues from publishing activities not exceeding €100,000, are not subject to the obligations established by Article 5 of Law No. 8 of February 1948.  47 (editor's note obligation to register), from article 1 of Law No. 416 of 5 August 1981, as amended, and article 16 of Law No. 62 of 7 March 2001, and the provisions referred to in the resolution of the Authority for Guarantees in Communications No.  666/08/CONS of November 26, 2008, as amended.”  The need for the indication of a responsible director registered in the Register remains confirmed.

Regarding the mandatory nature of registration, it can therefore be concluded that electronic journals distributed exclusively online, although considered editorial products, do not always and mandatorily have to be registered.

Registration becomes mandatory for the e-journal only in some specific cases: when it is published at regular intervals (but this cannot be the only criterion), when it is intended to obtain from the State "benefits, facilities and provisions", when the journal is produced for commercial purposes, when professional journalists are employed. Another condition for registration is when a traditional (printed) version of the journal is published along with the electronic version.

We may add that registering the journal can prove a convenient strategy when, given the scope of the journal (used by authors for upgrading their academic carrier) or if you intend to submit contributions to competitions (and it is always the discretion of the evaluation committees to judge the validity of the contribution in an online journal) it will be appropriate (for the moment) to still use the printed version (for legal deposit) alongside the digital version. In this case, since the printed version is also present, registration of the periodical will be mandatory.

A problem related to the registration of the online journals in Tribunal also concerns the fact that the legislation currently in force is not up to date and refers to printed journals. Therefore, in relation to online journals, we may observe different orientations in our tribunals (such as the one in Salerno) which, failing to extend current legislation to the digital sphere, rejected an individual request for registration of an e-journal with the motivation that it was difficult to establish the place of publication, whilst the Tribunal of Rome has accepted the request and registered the electronic journal.

When making the request for registration of the electronic journal in the Tribunal's Registry Office, it is necessary to deposit all the required documentation, to pay the associated costs and taxes, and - finally - to attach all the information regarding the contract with the service provider and the URL of the electronic publication. 

if you wish to access the full-text of the legislation framework, see Aspetti giuridici della gestione di una rivista online ad accesso aperto [in italian].

For more information, you may wish to access the documentation on starting an online journal at Pubblicare con Riviste UNIMI on the website Riviste UNIMI [in italian].

   optional step

ROC: for whom registration is mandatory?

Registration in the ROC (Registro Operatori Comunicazione) is mandatory only for those subjects belonging to one of the following categories, as defined by the Law: "imprese editrici di giornali quotidiani, periodici o riviste: 1) i soggetti editori di giornali quotidiani o di testate periodiche che pubblicano almeno 13 numeri l’anno ed hanno al contempo alle loro dipendenze non meno di 5 giornalisti a tempo pieno da un anno; 2) gli altri soggetti editori che comunque pubblicano una o più testate giornalistiche diffuse al pubblico con regolare periodicità", "soggetti esercenti l’editoria elettronica e digitale: gli editori, ai quali si applica la medesima ripartizione prevista per i soggetti di cui alla precedente lettera d), che pubblicano con regolare periodicità una o più testate giornalistiche in formato elettronico e digitale. Al fine di poter richiedere l’iscrizione al ROC, dunque, il soggetto dovrà essere editore di una testata dotata di programmata e regolare periodicità e di direttore responsabile ai sensi del disposto della legge 47/48." (traslation: publishing companies of daily newspapers, periodicals or magazines: 1) publishers of daily newspapers or periodicals who publish at least 13 issues a year and at the same time have employed no fewer than 5 full-time journalists for one year; 2) other publishers who in any case publish one or more newspapers distributed to the public with regular periodicity", "entities operating electronic and digital publishing: publishers, to whom the same distribution applies as for the entities referred to in the previous letter d), who regularly publish one or more newspapers in electronic and digital format. In order to apply for registration with the ROC, therefore, the subject must be the publisher of a newspaper with a scheduled and regular periodicity and a responsible editor pursuant to the provisions of Law 47/48.)

With reference to online periodicals, it should be noted that, in light of the provisions of Article 3-bis, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree 63/2012, as converted by the aforementioned Law No. 103/2012, only companies that publish periodicals produced solely on computer and distributed electronically are required to register in the Register. These companies:

• earn annual revenues from publishing activities exceeding or equal to 100,000 euros (revenues from subscriptions and sales in any form, including the offering of individual paid content, from advertising, sponsorships, from contracts and agreements with public and private entities) or
• have applied for public provisions, contributions or facilities. […]

Editorial teams in academic journals are typically formed on a voluntary basis (with no employees). They normally are not given any of the provisions stated by the Law 7 March 2001, no. 62.

For all information on the ROC and the related legal framework, we suggest you to visit the ROC official page on the AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni) website.

   recommended step

Requesting the DOI

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in its simplest definition is "the barcode for intellectual property". This standard, like the barcode for physical objects, allows permanent and unique identification of a digital entity with intellectual property within an information network. Metadata describing the object are associated with the resource according to a predefined scheme. The DOI is immediately active online: through indexing of the journal articles by the search engines, it allows for its permanent retrieval on the Web.

The DOI can be assigned to any content type, including: monographs, book chapters, journal articles and issue, journal titles, digital images, learning objects.

The DOI registry agency in Italy is Medra. For the registration, it is necessary to follow the specific procedure and pay an annual fee. For more information, visit the official website The DOI System.

  mandatory step

Using an open source software for management of the electronic journal

For the management and administration of an electronic journal, we suggest use of the software OJS (Open Journal System) that you can download free of charge for installation on your local web server. OJS allows to display the electronic journal through a web interface. Thanks to its interoperability with OAI-PMH, the software ensures a wide dissemination of online contents and a high ranking of results in the main search engines.

OJS offers full management and maintainance services for the e-journal website: the publishing workflow, the editorial process, the accreditation and role for each authorized user, as well as the peer-reviewing process and the submission of papers by potential authors.

  recommended step

Requesting the ISSN number

ISSN (International Standard Serials Number) is a standardized international number for unique and permanent  identification of serials. The ISSN is assigned also to electronic journals. In Italy, the Agency in charge of the assignement is the Centro Nazionale ISSN. Requests for a new ISSN number must therefore be addressed to the ISSN National Centre, following the specific online procedure. In the requests concerning electronic journals, information on the URL and e-mail address must be included.

N.B. Serials published on different phisical media (paper, DVD, online....) must be identified by different ISSNS

  optional step

Requesting the ISBN numbers in the case of monographic issues

ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a standardized international number for unique and permanent  identification of books issued by individual publishers. In addition to identifying the book, an ISBN may also be assigned to monographic issues of an e-journal. Requesting an ISBN code is not for free. Request procedures and all other relevant information can be found on the ISBN website.

  recommended step

Promotion of the e-journal through indexing and reference services

Indexing an e-journal is important mainly for two reasons: to ensure a wider dissemination of contents, and to broaden the impact and prestige of the e-journal (quality journals are normally indexed by more databases).

Here follows a list of the main directories where you can suggest your e-journal to be included for indexing purposes.

DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals

DOAJ is the most popular directory of scientific open access journals. It indexes more than 20,000 journals. A journal indexed by DOAJ gets a wide recognition in the international environment of scientific communication. For more information about indexing procedure and criteria, see HERE.

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GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Google Scholar is the Google tool for searching online academic publications: with the same ways as the well known word engine, it indexes scientific literature from the years '70, it searches and retrieves a wide range of scholarly documents (articles from academic journals, essays, peer-reviewed publications, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, technical reports, databases of still unpublished works from universities and other academic institutions. Google Scholar offers searching by citation and access to the full-text, whenever it is available.

For more information, see: Google Scholar Academic Publisher Support. 

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ACNP: Italian Catalogue of Periodicals (Catalogo italiano dei periodici)

ACNP is a union catalogue started in Italy during the Seventies by the ISRDS-CNR. It comprises the bibliographic descriptions of serial publications owned by Italian libraries located throughout Italy, including online journals, in all academic disciplines. Libraries participating in ACNP network can add their journals in this national showcase and also suggest the inclusion of new open access resources.

<http://acnp.cib.unibo.it/cgi-ser/start/it/cnr/fp.html>

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ULRICH'S WEB

Ulrichsweb is a bibliographic database of journals (even open access) issued worlwide, including newspapers, bulletins and newsletters, serial publications issued at more or less regular intervals, proceedings. For each title, an individual record is given, comprising all the main bibliographic and other descriptive elements: title, ISSN, issue date, subscription cost, reference to the electronic version (when existing). Information on all changes in the title or publisher, useful to get a picture of the journal's publishing history, is also available. Among other information elements, the disciplinary area / subject, the Dewey Decimal Classification code and any citation by the most important directories are given.  Many titles are linked with JCR - the Journal of Citation Reports by IsiWeb for calculation of the journal's IP (Impact Factor). Access to Ulrichsweb - as it is a subscribed resource - is reserved to UniPA users.

 <http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/>

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SCOPUS

An authoritative bibliographic (citational) database offering access to a vast amount of daily updated interdisciplinary resources: abstracts, bibliographic citations, indexes. With Scopus it is possible to obtain the H-Index, to analyse citations for the authors and their papers (through the Citation Tracker), make searches and analyse the authors' profile in the different discipline areas. The Scopus collection includes open access and other electronic resources. The collection also includes Open Access journals and electronic titles. Access to Scopus - as it is a subscribed resource - is reserved to UniPA users.

All the information for those who want to know how their journal can be indexed in Scopus is here: Suggest a title to be indexed.

<http://www.scopus.com/home.url>

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WEB OF SCIENCE

A bibliographic (citational) database produced by Clarivate, it lists authoritative journals with an high Impact Factor, giving information on all citations received by the articles included in each of the journal's issues.

The Web of Science's core collection contains abstracts and citations of peer-reviewed literature, growing daily, from over 12,000 journals (many of them open access) and books with a high scientific impact; titles include thousands of articles and conference proceedings related to science and the social humanities. Furthermore, the platform allows you to simultaneously query many other databases rich in millions of similar contents. Databases included in the contract: Arts & Humanities Citation Index; Emerging Sources Citation Index; Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Science Citation Index; Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI); KCI-Korean Journal Database; MEDLINE®; SciELO Citation Index; Journal Citation Report; Medline.

An important and authoritative evaluation tool based on citation analysis, WOS allows you to calculate author citation indices (citation index) and the H-index. Access to WOS - as it is a subscribed resource - is reserved to UniPA users. 

<http://webofknowledge.com/>