It should have an internationally respected editoral board and a transparent peer-review system. A newly founded journal may not have an impact factor score for the first couple of years, but from a practical view this seems to be most important to the majority of scientists and their institutions. However, it should be indexed and last but not least, it should by all means be available as print and perhaps online editons.

It should have an internationally respected editoral board and a transparent peer-review system. A newly founded journal may not have an impact factor score for the first couple of years, but from a practical view this seems to be most important to the majority of scientists and their institutions. However, it should be indexed and last but not least, it should by all means be available as print and perhaps online editons.

I think that a valuable journal should have the following parameters:

1- Double blind reviewing process

2- Very expert reviwers

3- High quality articles

4- Focusing on new techniques and topics

5- High impact factor (most citation)

I think that you have to consider also the presence:

- issn number

- of a ethic code (COPE: Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)

- of a clear list of redactional rules (APA STYLE).

- of doi codes

The journal I work for (metis.progedit.com) is working in this direction.

I invite you to visit it (and to partecipate if you are interested) and to suggest improvements. I'll be grateful.

You may find the Q & A's on exactly the same topic in RG of interest:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Definition_of_an_International_journal

Dear Giuseppe

Please pay attention to the following comments:

An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication.

Also, a digital object identifier (DOI) is a character string (a "digital identifier") used to uniquely identify an object such as an electronic document.

Therefore, having the ISSN and DOI number are not valuavle point.

A valuable internationally respected journal should be entirely free of any perception of bias. Where drugs or medical products are described it should never be in proprietary names but in chemical nomenclature only.

In my opinion, an international journal should be an open access journal. It’s the best way for the scholarly communication and for the authors.

National (local) or international scientific journals are in my opinion, should be the same in all aspects (editorial or scientific or other requirements). Therefore, there is no special classifications for national or international publication regarding scientific papers. However, to have a impact factor is another issue.

One more thing: it should NOT be on the Beall's list of predatory journals and publishers (http://scholarlyoa.com).