The Nordic List

Published: 2016-02

Nordic cooperation on research publication channels towards a common list

In three Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland and Norway — national lists of authorized research publication channels are used for indicators in the national performance-based research funding systems. Each country has significant running costs in maintaining and updating the bibliographic data in their databases. Sweden, Iceland and Faroe Island doesn't have such a funding system but are planning to use similar lists.

Collaboration on this issue is therefore desirable from the perspective of resource efficiency and as a tool for the countries without a funding system or a list. Moreover, collaboration would also provide higher quality and more updated information in each country and facilitate analyses comparing research output in the Nordic countries.

The Nordic countries are therefore cooperating on a common registry of research publications channels. Although there are some policy differences between each country in how the lists are compiled and used - for example the number of levels used in each country differs - collaboration on the underlying bibliographic data is both possible and desirable without the need to harmonize policy at all levels.

A Nordic list would therefore consist of a common bibliographic dataset on the publication channels listed in each countries national database and perhaps in the future a common system of allocating channels to various levels. The plan is to join the lists technically in a cloud solution which will give all of the countries common duties to contribute to the list and equal rights to use it.

The objectives of the Nordic collaboration on publication channels are:

• to reduce and share the burden of maintaining bibliographic data concerning publications channels,
• to improve and refine the data quality contained in each national database and provide for greater comparability,
• to facilitate and improve analyses of research output at the national level and comparatively between Nordic countries.

The project concerns the following stakeholders:

Several meetings at a Nordic level have already been arranged in the steering group for the collaboration with representatives from the stakeholders. The countries without lists have been included along the process of planning the project. NSD are now coordinating the project of the Nordic list, the UHR are reporting to NordForsk who are financing the project for a common list of authorized research publication channels for the Nordic countries.