This chapter analyses the reasons behind the evaluation of scientific journals in all scientific fields, especially activities aimed at assessing the performance of scientists. Secondly, it describes the methods, procedures and criteria that can be used to evaluate scientific journals. This section establishes a two-dimensional approach to evaluating journals: as a scientific communication method and as a social institution that represents a community of scientists. It considers a number of evaluation criteria for each dimension.
With respect to the first dimension, which is designed to assess the editorial quality of a journal, the indicators analysed include compliance with regulatory standards, management of the editorial process, visibility and accessibility, use, impact, reputation and quality of content. In terms of the second dimension, the most appropriate method for gaining an insight into a journal is bibliometrics, and the key indicators that can be used include production, authorship, collaboration, topic, analysis of references and social networks
