Journal Inclusion and Verification Policy
POSI uses a hybrid journal inclusion model combining automatic metadata discovery, journal-initiated submission, and evidence-based manual verification.
Overview
POSI does not treat every automatically discovered record as a POSI Verified Journal Record. Automatically discovered records are clearly marked as unverified metadata records until they pass POSI's public evidence review.
Inclusion Model
2.1 — Extended Metadata Record
An extended metadata record is identified through open scholarly metadata sources such as Crossref, OpenAlex, DOAJ, OAI-PMH, or other public metadata infrastructures. These records do not imply POSI verification, endorsement, accreditation, or quality recognition.
2.2 — Submitted Journal Record
Created when a journal, publisher, editor, or authorized representative submits journal information to POSI for review. Submitted records enter a review queue and are checked against POSI's public evidence criteria.
2.3 — POSI Verified Journal Record
A journal record that has passed POSI's evidence-based verification process. Verified records may become eligible for full PQF assessment, provided sufficient public evidence is available.
Record Status System
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| discovered | The record was found from public metadata sources but has not yet been imported. |
| imported | The record has been imported into POSI as a metadata record. |
| unverified | The record exists in POSI but has not passed manual verification. |
| submitted | The journal has submitted information for POSI review. |
| under_review | POSI is reviewing the record against public evidence criteria. |
| verified | The record has passed POSI evidence-based verification. |
| pqf_evaluated | The journal has received a POSI Quality Framework (PQF) assessment. |
| excluded | The record does not meet POSI inclusion or evidence criteria. |
| removed | The record has been removed from public display or active indexing. |
The nine statuses above are POSI's internal record lifecycle. The public Core Collection page summarizes them into three reader-facing states: Discovered maps to discovered and imported; Indexed maps to verified and pqf_evaluated; Metric Eligible is the subset of Indexed journals with a resolvable PCI/PCS figure.unverified, submitted, and under_review are in-progress states not yet shown in either public bucket; excluded and removed records are not publicly listed.
Data Sources
POSI may discover or enrich records using the following sources. Source attribution and metadata provenance are preserved wherever possible.
Automatic Metadata Discovery
Automatic discovery may include the following metadata fields:
Automatic discovery does not substitute for manual verification. Records must be clearly marked as unverified unless reviewed.
Journal Submission Requirements
A journal submitted to POSI should provide the following:
Verification Criteria
A journal may be marked verified only after evidence review. Checks may include:
- ✓Journal website is accessible
- ✓Journal title and ISSN are consistent
- ✓Publisher information is clear
- ✓Editorial board is publicly available
- ✓Peer review policy is publicly available
- ✓Open access policy is publicly available
- ✓APC or fee policy is publicly available
- ✓Copyright and license information is clear
- ✓Publication ethics policy is available
- ✓Retraction and correction policy is available
- ✓DOI records are resolvable, where applicable
- ✓Metadata is available through Crossref, OAI-PMH, or public pages
- ✓No false claims of indexing by DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, or PubMed appear on the journal’s public pages
- ✓Editorial board, peer review process, and APC/waiver policy are all publicly disclosed (no critical governance disclosure is missing)
POSI Quality Framework (PQF) Eligibility
Not every POSI record automatically receives a PQF. Eligibility depends on verification status and evidence completeness.
| Record Type | PQF Display Rule |
|---|---|
| Extended record | No full PQF |
| Imported but unverified record | No full PQF |
| Submitted record | Preliminary review only |
| Under review record | PQF pending |
| Verified record | Eligible for full PQF |
| Verified with sufficient evidence | Full PQF displayed |
| Publisher-owned journal | Full PQF + COI notice required |
Frontend Display Rules
9.1 Extended Record
9.2 Submitted
9.3 Verified
Evidence Registry
Every verified record and every PQF assessment should be connected to evidence. Evidence may include:
Correction and Removal Policy
POSI accepts correction requests from journals, publishers, editors, authors, and readers. Requests may concern:
- —Incorrect journal title
- —Incorrect ISSN
- —Incorrect publisher information
- —Broken links
- —Incorrect DOI metadata
- —Incorrect article metadata
- —Outdated policy links
- —Incorrect verification status
- —Incorrect PQF evidence
- —Request for record removal
POSI may update, correct, flag, exclude, or remove records where appropriate.
Responsible Use Statement
POSI indicators should not be used as the sole basis for:
Conflict of Interest Statement
POSI is operated by Panorama Scholarly Group. Some journals listed in POSI may be published by Panorama Scholarly Group. Publisher-owned journals are evaluated using the same public criteria as all other records. When a journal is published by Panorama Scholarly Group, this relationship must be clearly disclosed on the journal record page.
Recommended Workflow
POSI automatically discovers journal and article metadata from public sources.
Basic metadata is imported into POSI. No verification claim. No full PQF.
A journal may submit additional information and evidence for review.
POSI checks public evidence and verifies record accuracy.
Verified journals with sufficient evidence may receive PQF evaluation.
The record is displayed with status labels, evidence links, and responsible use notices.
Recommended Public Labels
Final Policy Summary
POSI uses automatic discovery to build open scholarly metadata coverage, journal submissions to improve record accuracy, and manual evidence review to establish trust.