Provisional resolution of the call for the CEA-APQ quality seal in academic publishing collections 2024

The Monitoring Committee of the CEA-APQ Collections Seal of Quality in Academic Publishing, after reviewing the provisional resolution proposals for each of the thirteen collections submitted by the Evaluation Committee, has issued the provisional resolution of the eighth call for proposals, which is being carried out in 2024.

The resolution, which has been communicated to the applicant publishers and is published on the website https://colecciones.selloceaapq.es/, contemplates a period of allegations that ended on May 24.  

Once the allegations have been received, the Evaluation Committee will examine them and prepare a final report with its proposal, which will be submitted to the Seal's Monitoring Committee, the body responsible for adopting the final resolution.

Thirteen collections in the eighth call

In this eighth call for applications, thirteen publishing collections have applied for the seal. Nine are applying for the first time and four are applying for renewal.

Monitoring Commission

The Monitoring Committee is composed of: Susana Quicios, director of the Faculty Evaluation Division of ANECA; Anabel Bonilla, head of international accreditation processes at ANECA; Cristina González, director of Scientific Information Management at FECYT; María Ángeles Coslado, technician responsible for the evaluation process of journals of the FECYT seal; María Isabel Cabrera, president of UNE; Ana Isabel González, UNE Quality advisor; and Joaquín Corbacho, administrator of the CEA-APQ Seal.

What has been evaluated?

The seal, which accredits scientific quality, is awarded to those collections that meet the requirements in four sections:

• Informative quality of the collection. The seal assesses different aspects of communication, dissemination and access to the collection, such as collection identification, inclusion of metadata and reviews in scientific journals.
• Quality of the editorial policy. The requirements, in this case, analyze the definition of the editorial policy of each collection and the identification and prestige of the collection director and the scientific committee.
• Quality of editorial processes. The publishers must accredit the existence of detailed instructions for the submission of works, information on the manuscript selection process and the reasoned communication of the acceptance or rejection of the works.
• Reputation and prestige of the collection. Finally, the requirements in this section value the frequent publication of authors from outside the publishing institution and the capacity to attract original works by foreign authors, in addition to the citations and reviews received.

What does this Seal imply?

The CEA-APQ Seal is recognized, since its creation in 2017, as an indication of quality of publications in the evaluation of research activity, recognition made by the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI), and in the evaluation criteria of research merits claimed for the different figures of accreditation of teaching staff carried out by ANECA (See BOE of December 16, 2023).

How many collections have obtained it?
At present, 63 collections have this seal, which recognizes the best practices in Spanish university publishing, promotes and stimulates quality in academic publishing and is an indication of scientific quality recognized by research evaluation agencies and the university community..

Which institutions drive it?

At the forefront of the creation and development of the Academic Publishing Quality Seal (CEA-APQ) is the UNE, responsible for coordinating the work together with ANECA and FECYT.
In 2023, the CEA-APQ Monographs Seal was born.

In 2023, these three institutions launched the first call for the CEA-APQ Seal for individual monographs, which was awarded to 35 monographs.