Refereed Academic Journals in the United Arab Emirates

An evaluation study of their compliance with the Standard Specifications of the International

Organization for Standardization (ISO)

ByAsma’a S. AssimSupervised byProfessor Dr. Jassim M. Jirjees Ph.D.

The U.A.E Libraries Symposium

An evaluation study aiming to identify compliance of the refereed journals published by academic universities in the United Arab Emirates with the standard specifications developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The degree of compliance of these journals with the standards was satisfactory by an average score of very good category in general.

80% Complied

20% not complied

Journals are considered

An important channel of communicationAn important source for informationBreaks language barriersBreaks social and economic barriersBreaks the digital divide barrier

Academics are facing great changes as electronic access to information is increasing

It is important for Academic Institutions to consider:•Establishing electronic publications•investigate current technologies available •copyright, access•coordination between libraries •How standards can help in this process Investigate

DefinitionsRefereed JournalsRefereed journals are publications reviewed by experts or refereesprior to the publication of the material.Refereed journals are also referred to as peer reviewed.They assure the users that the information is reliable

ISO Standards•ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer of voluntary International standards, founded in 1947.•ISO is an independent, non-governmental organization made up of members from the National standards bodies of 162 countries.•Published more than 19,500 International Standards covering almost all aspects of technology and business.For the purpose of this study the researcher chose the standards that describe the documentation presentation of periodicals. This standard consists of elements and sets out rules intended to enable editors and publishers to present periodicals in a form which will facilitate their use.

The degree of compliance of academic refereed journals with the ISO standards.

Establish scientific basis in improving and rectifying the weaknesses already existing in publishing refereed journals

The United Arab Emirates refereed journals published by academic institutions abided by the ISO standards that are related to the documentation and presentation of periodicals.

Statement of the problemThe consequences when publishing refereed journals without abiding the ISO standards rules, and how does that affect study and research.

Limitations of the studyObjective Limits:The nature of the refereed journals and not the nature of articles.

Geographical Limits:Refereed journals published by the United Arab Emirates academic institutions.

Time Limits:The latest issue published during the last five years.

Literature review

Publishing refereed journals in the Arab world still is in its development stage. Many of them discontinue publication because of financial problems, and other barriers that discourage researchers and writers to submit or even try to publish their articles and studies. Publishing refereed journals in the United Arab Emirates started at a later stage compared to other Arab countries. Many academic institutions started publishing electronic refereed journals, and diverting it’s journals to electronic along with the print copy.

A study by Jirjees, M. Jassim(1996) titled Journals of Iraqi Universities: an analytical study, aimed to find out the degree to which the Iraqi University periodicals follow the periodicals specifications assigned by ISO. The results of this study showed that the periodicals under study follow the specifications to a large degree around 75% and that the periodicals of pure and applied sciences follow the specifications to a large degree than those of social and human sciences.

Literature review

For the Jordanian journals in general, a study was done by Jassim, M. Jirjees and Abdul Nabi, J (1997) in which they exposed that the compliance degree of Jordanian journals with the International Standards was poor and beyond the required level. The general average of performance of those journals scored 48%.

As for Syria, a study was conducted by Bakla, M. Zuhair (1990) in which he exposed that the compliance degree of Syrian journals with the International Standards was generally very good as the general average of performance of those journals scored 71%.

Methodology and Data collection approach

Descriptive analytical approach Three integrated stages:

Data Collection approach

Conclusions:The United Arab Emirates refereed journals with the ISO Standards specifications achieved an average of very good 80%.

• Full compliance related to the standards for three elements: running title, abstracts, and special cases.

• Very good compliance related to the standards for four elements: date, pagination, title of periodical, and layout.

• Good compliance related to the standards for two elements: numbering, and index.

• Poor compliance related to the standards for two elements: volume, and issue.

Publishing electronic journals in general and electronic academic refereed journals in particular is still in its early stages

Recommendations:

Academic Institutions that publish refereed journals should start taking into consideration applying the standards that have never been put in place, followed by those whose degree of compliance was poor or very poor.

Encourage academic institutions to start on publishing electronic journals to meet the rapid technological changes and the students and researchers needs.

Encourage academic journal publishing institutions to develop and publish guides and statistics for all journals published by academic institutions throughout the United Arab Emirates.

Invite researchers to conduct similar studies to measure the extent of abidance of other refereed journals issued by academic institutions and organizations, scientific associations, and research centers with the international specifications and standards (ISO) to have a clear view of the degree of compliance.

Invite researchers to conduct a comparative study between the refereed journals published in various Arab countries to know which are more abiding with the International specifications and standards (ISO).