I believe everything said here has is true. In my country, some universities require from their faculty at least some of the publications be made by so-called "international journals".

Being international is related to the authors, readers, board members, language and having ISSN number and whether being included in scientific abstracting services.

In my opinion, restricting the definition to journals included in international scientific abstracting services and has an ISSN number should be considered as minimum requirements to qualify as an international journal.

As far as I know there is no criterion that has to be fulfilled.

I believe that a journal is international whenever a publication is made from a different country compared to where the journal is based.

Yes that's true. Journal with ISSN no. and publishing papers from various countries are International Journals.

Indeed, there is no exact answer for that. It remains to be a controversy for universities in many countries, especially for those scholars and journals without publishing in or being indexed by CitationIndex (Thomas Reuters). However, i do agree with Lars and Saumendu said.

I think that the journal itself can be called "international" when the editors and/or members of the advisory board are from different countries, and the full text of the publications is English.

I believe everything said here has is true. In my country, some universities require from their faculty at least some of the publications be made by so-called "international journals".

Being international is related to the authors, readers, board members, language and having ISSN number and whether being included in scientific abstracting services.

In my opinion, restricting the definition to journals included in international scientific abstracting services and has an ISSN number should be considered as minimum requirements to qualify as an international journal.

According to my knowledge there is no standard way to classify a journal as international or National. Suppose i publish my research paper in my own country in a peer reviewed journal and name of the journal started with "International Journal of...........". then what you will call it ? Is it international publication or national ?

In my opinion there is no accurate definition for this.

The problem is that a lot of bogus/predatory/new open access journals have a title starting with "International", for stimulating submissions by giving the impression of internationality. The name of the journal is certainly not an indicator of internationality.

A Very useful but very deceptive topic. Various issues are involved. There is no fixed definition for this topic. The general definition for the type of journals may be put as:

A. Types of journals:

1. Institutional Journals

- Belong to and started by an institute

- Normally publish papers from the institute faculty and occassionally by outsiders as well

- Circulation is normally within the institute and country

- Indexing - normally not indexed

- Editor - normally belong to that institute - and one only

- Started by individuals

- Impact factor - normally not available

- Peer Review - Yes, may be time taking

2. National Journals

- Belong to and started by a national institute or Scientific Society working at National Level

- Normally publish papers from the country and from outsides as well

- Circulation is normally within the country but not limited

- Indexing - normally indexed by the national agencies and occassionally by international agencies, indexed by 1-5 agencies or more

- Editor/Editorial board - normally belong to that a group within the country

- Impact Factor - Normally small.

- Peer Review - Yes, may be time taking

- ISSN Number

2. International Journals

- Belong to and started by a publisher/ Scientific Society working at International/ National Level

- Normallyopen to publish papers from all over the world

- Circulation is world wide

- Indexing - normally indexed by the at most of the major indexing agencies

- Editor/Editorial board - normally belong to that a group within the country

-- Impact Factor - Normally higher.

- Peer Review - Yes, quick and fast, online publication is available very fast.

- ISSN Number

From the comments listed above I gather the following criteria for an International journal :

1. Whenever a publication is made from a different country compared to where the journal is based in.

2. Journal with ISSN no. and publishing papers from various countries are International Journals.

3. When the editors and/or members of the advisory board are from different countries, and the full text of the publications is English.

4. Journals having ISSN number and whether being included in scientific abstracting services..

5. When Readers, Authors, Editorial board, Cited papers, and reviewers should be international - from many different countries.

All these criteria are good for an international journal.

Also knowing little backgroud, who publishes these journals and how these are published is important.

Many of the journals are published by the scientific societies, this is quite right.

Most of journals are published by the publishing companies and the owners for these companies are not even graduates many-a-times. they may be from any country.

Whether the question of a journal being an international journal should also include a minimum qualification for the owner of the publishing company.

I think all what said is true, but a common problem faces some authors that they choose some journals to publish their papers among a number of reputable journals with relatively high impact factors, based on the fact that it deals with the paper faster and the acceptance of paper is 100% guaranteed,,, Any idea about this issue?

Selection of a journal lfor publication of a research paper is almost always based on

1. The topic of the paper.

2. Scope of the journal

3. Knowledge or familarty of the reseacher to the journal

4. Recommendation of the journal by a colleague

5. Quality of the work and its compatibility with the journal IMPACT FACTOR (This comes slightly down in the priorty for many reserchers, as the surety of publication is more important ).

6.The familarity with the Editorial Board and its compostion, sometimes also become a factor.

All these factors afftect the becoming of a journal as international journal.

So you see that any journal can be an international journal, if it

1. Publishes articles from many countries

2. Editorial board consists of scientist from many countries

3. Has circulation in many countries.

As the popular quotation says "WHAT'S IN A NAME". so the word International may or may not be there. Examples are well known, Nature, Sciene, Cell and so on.

It is better to classify journals based on reputed and non reputed journals (no matter it belongs to International or national tag). In my opinion those journals which have a consistent impact factor greater than 1 (Science field) should be considered as reputed.

It is better to classify journals as  International based on following criteria:

At least 25% of the editorial board/ associate or assistant editors reside/ are employed outside the country of publication.

At least 33% of the total number of papers published originate from outside the country of publication.

At least 50% the total number of subscriptions originates from institutions or individuals outside the country of publication.

National and International journals can be classified according to the Society/Association or the Scientific body which publishes the Journal/s belongs to which country (Native or Foreign)?

Though there is no specific definition for "International journal", the following criteria are appropriate and relevant.

1. The Journal should have an International Editorial Board

2. The Journal should have a current ISSN or eISSN

3. The Journal should be indexed by at least one International Database

4. The Journal should publish at least few papers in each volume authored by foreign authors (outside the country of its publication)

The question of subscription by foreign countries is meaningless now since many journals are available online free without any subscription charges.

The question of language (i.e. it should be in English) is also not correct as there are international linguistic journals (e.g. Research Journals in Languages viz., German, Tamil, etc.).

International level professional societies such as ALA may come out with a clear definition for 'International Journal' to avoid unnecessary chaos in this regard.

many fake predatory journals begin with international journal (innovation, research and so on)

An International journal should have very reputed Editorial Board and it should publish research articles from across the world.

An international journal indeed is one in which majority of the editorial board members and the reviewers are not residing in the country that the journal office is located. An international journal must be reputed, patronized and accessed by many researchers globally.