Quality criteria for books

The criteria for Libros REDIB books, including both formal nature and technical character, are gathered in mandatory, which are essential for the admission in the platform, and recommended, as a suggestion for improvement. All of them are aimed to the refinement and innovation of the procedures and technologies of the electronic edition of books.

The criteria for Libros REDIB books are gathered in three areas:

A. Editorial Policy: Those declarative and defining aspects that ensure the scientific and academic character of the editorial line, the publication of original and unpublished contents, which guarantee the essential editorial openness of authorship and evaluation.

B. Editorial Management: The editorial and technical requirement through the editorial policy is executed.

C. Books Presentation: The formal and technical aspects that ensure the access to the electronic edition of the books.

A. Criteria of Editorial Policy

A1 Mandatory

A1.1 Accessible publisher website
The publisher must have its own independent website, or one which is easily identifiable within an institutional website. This website must be functional and easy-to-navigate, allowing quick access to books and content.
A1.2 Publishing entity
The publisher website will present its editorial line and policy. It will also provide specific information such as the year in which it was founded and the directors of its main services or departments.
A1.3 Requirement of originality
The publisher must publish original content deriving from original and unpublished academic studies or research projects.
A1.4 System of arbitration
The procedure used to evaluate original projects or studies must be set forth.

A2 Recommended

A2.1 Publisher production
The continuous and regular publication of scientific or academic books over at least the last 5 years will be assessed.
A2.2 Style Guide
The usage of a Style Guide of the own editorial or the explicit use of acknowledged editorial rules will be appreciated.
A2.3 Quality management
The implementation of a certified quality management system or the certification of editorial quality under the national regulations will be appreciated.
A2.4 Series
We recommended that the number of out-of-series books does not exceed the number of books published as part of a series.
A2.5 Series management
We recommend that the series have their own director and editorial team, which is comprised by one or multiple bodies and includes the participation of experts. The full name, institutional affiliation and ORCID ID of said experts will be included on the website and in the serial volumes.
A2.6 Editorial openness of collections
It will be appreciated that at least a part of the editorial council members of each collection is external from the editorial entity.

B. Criteria of editorial management

B1 Mandatory

B1.1 Online catalogue
The publishing catalogue should be available on the publisher's website, and each title must have its own URL address.We recommend including at least the following bibliographical data: full title, author(s), synopsis, language, year and topics.
B1.2 ISBN
An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) must be mentioned in books with a commercial distribution, in each of their formats (printed or digital).
B1.3 Instructions to the authors
The publisher must have a set of publication standards which set forth a series of instructions to the authors and the procedure that is followed in the receipt, selection and evaluation of original works.

B2 Recommended

B2.1 Provider of OAI-PMH data
The editorial has a provider of data based on the OAI-PMH protocol to export metadata of books in the Dublin Core format.
B2.2 Indexed Editorial
The editorial is indexed in one of the main directories, catalogues, virtual libraries, etc.
B2.3 Good Practice Guide
The publisher has a Good Practice Guide, in which the responsibilities of the publisher itself, the authors and evaluators and the guiding principles for the resolution of editorial conflicts of any nature are set forth.
B2.4 Anti-plagiarism tools
The publisher uses tools that are designed to detect plagiarism in any of its forms.

C. Criteria for the presentation of books

C1 Mandatory

C1.1 Bibliographic data
In the first pages of each volume it must be stated: full title, author(s), location, year of publication and edition number, where appropriate. In multivolume works, the name of the series or collection will also be given.
C1.2 Publishing entity
The name, postal or web address and country of the publisher(s) must be given.
C1.3 Authorship
For each volume, together with the author(s) of the main text, all contributors such as the authors of the prologue, the introduction or the chapters, the translators or the reviewers must be clearly stated, either on the credits page or on a note.
C1.4 Identification of the authors
The authors will be identified by their names, surnames and their institutional affiliation and in their case, their mention of responsibility (coordinator, editor, etc.). When the work is not attributed to a concrete author, it shall comprise an identified institutional or corporative author (institute, university, etc.).
C1.5 Table of contents
The volumes must have at least a table of contents or contents page.
C1.6 Bibliography
The complete bibliographic references of every document quoted in the text must be included.
C1.7 Rights
The copyrights of the content, the legal text and the usage or reproduction instructions, where appropriate, and the expressed mention of other rights or usage conditions (free copy, Creative Commons licence, etc.) must be stated.

C2 Recommended

C2.1 DOI
The books and book chapters have a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or similar.
C2.2 ORCID
In the books, the authors are identified by their ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) code.
C2.3 Other forms of electronic publication
The electronic publication of books in non-PDF formats, such as ePub, HTML and XML, will also be assessed.