Publication Forum invites members of the scholarly community to take part in the re-evaluation of level 2 publication channels.
The Publication Forum evaluation panels are responsible for classifying scholarly publication channels to levels 1 and 2 of the JUFO classification. In accordance with the decision taken by the Publication Forum Steering Group on 8 September 2025, level 3 will be removed from the JUFO classification at the beginning of 2027; therefore, publication channels can no longer be proposed for upgrading to level 3.
Level 1 is the basic level of the Publication Forum classification, to which the majority of publication channels are assigned. Within their quotas, the evaluation panels may classify the leading publication channels in each field at level 2. This level is re-evaluated every four years.
The scholarly community is invited to submit proposals concerning the JUFO classification to support the evaluation work of the panels. The Publication Forum evaluation panels welcome well-argued proposals in which the significance and impact of the publication channel are assessed in relation to other publication channels in the same field. The justifications should not be based solely on impact indicators, such as the Journal Impact Factor.
Members of the scholarly community may submit proposals in the JUFO portal for publication channels to be upgraded to level 2 until 28 February 2026. As the panels can classify only a limited number of publication channels at level 2, proposals for lowering the levels of publication channels are also useful.
In April–June 2026, the panels will prepare a new draft proposal for the level classification, which will be finalized by the panels in the course of the autumn. The Publication Forum Steering Group will approve the proposal at the end of the year, and it will enter into force at the beginning of 2027.
Submit proposals for changes to publication channels in the JUFO portal
Publication Forum classification
Publication Forum is a level classification of publication channels implemented by the Finnish scholarly community to support the quality assessment of research. The evaluation of publication channels is carried out by 23 discipline-specific expert panels.
The Publication Forum classification is used in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s funding model for universities as a weighting factor for the scientific quality and impact of publications. On the basis of scholarly and other publications, a total of 14 per cent of universities’ core funding is allocated.
The panels can upgrade a limited number of the most highly regarded publication channels in each field to level 2. For each panel, level 2 journals may in total account for no more than 25 per cent of the combined global publication volume of all journals in the panel, measured as the total annual number of Finnish and international scholarly articles published in the journal series. The purpose of these quotas is to balance the JUFO classification between the main fields of science.
In addition to the four-yearly re-evaluation of level 2, the panels continuously assess publication channels proposed for inclusion at level 1 or for downgrading from that level. New publication channels can be proposed for evaluation in the JUFO portal.
Further information:
Leena Wahlfors / leena.wahlfors@tsv.fi
Publication Forum Secretariat
Federation of Finnish Learned Societies
www.julkaisufoorumi.fi
Photo: Fachrizal Maulana / Unsplash
You might also be interested in
