We refer to the circumstances of the academic environment which require the evaluation of scientific journals. We suggest the deployment of the quality function of these journals in four dimensions, two of which are well known (standardization or form, and purpose or content) and two which are new (production process and customer evaluation). The independence of the four dimensions is discussed, together with their concepts, the way they can be evaluated in practice and examples of entities which effectively use them. An instrument for the evaluation of scientific journals, used by the field of education, has each one of its 32 items analysed from the four dimensional optic and associated with one or more of the latter. We conclude with (i) a "post-application" discussion on the deployment; (ii) proposals for changes that can be made to the evaluation instrument examined, bearing in mind the analysis carried out; and (iii) a quick introduction to the eventual advantages of also employing the four dimensional approach in the ambit of electronic journals.
quality of scientific journals; evaluation of scientific journals; electronic scientific journals
