The Development and Transparency of Research Journals: The Case of Mongolian Education Journals

Abstract

Research on the development of academic journals in Mongolia remains limited, particularly with regard to systematic assessments of publishing practices, transparency, and alignment with international standards. This study examines these issues through the case of education journals, with the aim of assessing their publishing practices in publicly accessible online environments and identifying directions for further development. To this end, requirements drawn from five international and three national sources on journal development were synthesized to develop an assessment instrument comprising 24 indicators across seven domains. Five education journals were assessed using these indicators, producing 120 observations that were coded into three categories: verified, partially verified, and not found in publicly accessible sources. Of these observations, 58 (48.3%) were verified, 35 (29.2%) were partially verified, and 27 (22.5%) were not found. At the domain level, online presence, accessibility, and archiving (86.7%), journal identity and scope (80.0%), and author and article standards (76.7%) were relatively well established. In contrast, publicly available information on peer review and quality assurance (45.0%) and publication ethics and integrity (23.3%) was limited. Notably, although publication ethics requirements were widely represented across the source frameworks, corresponding evidence on journal websites was often insufficient, revealing a gap between formal requirements and transparency in practice. The findings suggest that academic journal development should be considered not only in terms of online presence but within a broader research knowledge infrastructure encompassing editorial governance, peer review, publication ethics, and the discoverability of scholarly outputs.