Best Practices for Ejournals : Publication and Website Design Guidelines

1. If there is a print equivalent, be certain that the title on the website is the same!
2. When choosing a title, avoid clever punctuation and special characters which may interfere with title accessibility.
3. Provide complete bibliographic information for cataloging on the home page: title, place of publication, publisher, ISSN, publication or copyright date.
4. Provide an "About" file with additional information such as frequency of publication, sponsoring or responsible bodies, scope and purpose of the journal, whether or not it is peer-reviewed
5. Apply for an ISSN from the ISSN center. Ejournals with print equivalents require a different ISSN assignment. Changes of title require a new ISSN assignment.
6. Choose a clear and simple numbering scheme.
7. Provide both browse and search capabilities for issue content.
8. Provide metadata for the journal in the html source code.
9. Provide stable, concise and comprehensible urls.
10. Provide easy navigation to an archive of back issues.
11. If the title changes, create a separate webpage for the new title with a link to the prior title. Make links on both pages reciprocal. Do not change the title on the issues previously published under the prior title--retaining the former title is essential for researchers with citation information.
12. Participate in the LOCKSS program, a distributed model for preserving electronic content.
13. Announce new titles via NewJour, an Internet list for ejournals and e-newsletters.
14. Submit open access titles to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

References:
1. What's in a Name -- publication guidelines for print serials
2. Report on the NISO/NFAIS Workshop: Electronic Journals -- Best Practices, Feb. 20, 2000

created by: Ann Ercelawn, serials cataloger, Vanderbilt University 08/2005