Changes to the level ratings of publication channels

In the spring of 2024, the Publication Forum collected research community's experiences on defects in quality assessment practices of scientific journals. In total of 180 pieces of feedback were received and they concerned 139 journals.

In addition, the secretariat had brought to the panels for re-evaluation journals that had been removed from international databases, such as DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Scopus or Web of Science due to concerns related to journal's operations. Also journals that are marked as level X in Norway were brought to the re-evaluation.

The Publication Forum panels went through the feedback at their spring meetings and, as a result, decided to downgrade 60 journals to level 0. Please find here a list of journals to be downgraded. It is also possible to see the list of these journals in the JUFO portal by using the "Forthcoming level changes" filter found under the "Other filters".

Even though the campaign has ended, it is possible to give feedback on publication channels' quality assessment practices any time through the JUFO portal with the "Suggest new level" function. Received feedback will be discussed in regularly organised panel meetings.

When reviewing the feedback, the panels discussed the publisher's role in evaluations. Especially, the panels discussed commercial open access publishers, whose business model is based on collecting as many author fees (so called APC fees) as possible. The Publication Forum steering group has outlined that the level of a publication channel should not be defined solely on the basis of the publisher, but that each channel should be evaluated independently. The panels hoped for a new discussion about this policy, so a joint meeting of the Publication Forum steering group and the chairs of the panels has been arranged for September 2024.

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