Conflict of Interest Disclosure
POSI is committed to transparency about its organizational structure and the potential conflicts of interest that arise from it.
Primary Conflict of Interest
POSI is operated by Panorama Scholarly Group Ltd. (PSG). PSG also publishes 13 academic journals that are listed in POSI and receive PQF editorial-selection assessments and automated AJR (POSI Automated Rating) lifecycle ratings. This creates a structural conflict of interest: the same organization that operates the platform also publishes journals that are rated by it.
What This Means in Practice
PSG journals are assessed under the same PQF criteria and AJR methodology as all other journals
No special criteria, weighting adjustments, or manual overrides are applied to PSG journal records. PQF scoring is criterion-based and binary; AJR (early-stage or mature) is computed by versioned calculation code from crawled site evidence and sampled Crossref articles. No reviewer, editor, administrator, sponsor, or affiliated organization has a code path to directly set a score, rank, percentile, or quartile.
PSG journal scores may be inflated due to inside knowledge
Because PSG operates the journals, the review team may have access to unpublished policy documents or context that external journals do not. We work to restrict both PQF and AJR evidence collection to publicly accessible sources only, but this risk cannot be fully eliminated.
POSI benefits reputationally when PSG journals score well
High PQF or AJR scores for PSG journals serve as demonstration of the platform's utility, which creates a financial and reputational incentive for PSG. Readers should weigh this when interpreting PSG journal scores.
POSI does not receive journal processing charges (APCs) from PSG journals
POSI journal assessment is currently free. PSG does not pay POSI for favorable coverage. However, as both are operated by the same legal entity, this distinction has organizational rather than financial significance.
PSG Journals Currently in POSI (13 records)
eISSN 3052-539X · GRHAS
eISSN 3053-4011 · AFS
eISSN 3052-9654 · JLPCS
eISSN 3053-7037 · HNEX
eISSN 3053-3597 · PEAR
eISSN 3053-478X · JESA
eISSN 3053-6553 · TTS
eISSN 3053-7282 · RGGD
eISSN 3053-4410 · RJGMS
eISSN 3054-9663 · CSGS
eISSN 3054-6958 · JSCC
eISSN 3054-4386 · SILENCE
eISSN 3056-0977 · CROPT
Mitigation Measures
- ✓All PQF and AJR criteria are publicly documented and independently verifiable by any reader.
- ✓Both PQF and AJR scoring use only publicly accessible evidence — no internal editorial systems or unpublished data.
- ✓All PSG journal records include a visible conflict of interest notice on their detail pages.
- ✓POSI does not charge journals for assessment or listing, eliminating pay-to-score incentives.
- ✓The PQF and AJR methodologies, criteria weights, and scoring code are published and version-controlled.
- ✓Independent third-party verification of PSG journal scores is encouraged and welcomed.
Recommendation for readers: When reviewing PQF or AJR scores for PSG journals, independently verify the criteria against the journal's public website. Use these as one of several inputs to journal evaluation, not as the sole indicator. For critical decisions, consult DOAJ, Crossref, and other independent open access registries.