About the Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers

The Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers is operated jointly between The National Board of Scholarly Publishing (NPU) and Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills on behalf of The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The Directorate has operational responsibility. NPU has approval authority of journals, series, and publishers.

The Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers collects information from other sources and registers. We will endeavour to keep the information up to date and accurate, but we do not accept any liability in relation to any errors or outdated data.

Publication channels

In the register, often known as the Norwegian Register, you can find publication channels approved as scientific publication channels. You can also submit new publication channels. Publication channels are journals, series, and publishers.

An approved scientific publication channel is a publication channel with level 1 (lowest ranking) or level 2 (highest ranking). If you publish in an approved scientific publication channel, you can yield publication points. In Norway, the Ministry of Education and Research use the publication points as basis for reallocation of funds between Norwegian institutions.

Academic publication

In addition to publish in an approved publication channel, the publication must be recognised as academic to collect publication points. An academic publication must

present new insight,
be presented in a form which makes the results verifiable or usable in new research
be presented in a language and have a distribution which makes it accessible for the majority of researchers who may be interested in it
be in a publication channel (journal, series, publisher, website) with routines for peer review.

See:

Academic publication at DBH (only in Norwegian) for more information about publication points and how they are calculated.
About funding system (only in Norwegian) for more information about the Norwegian financial system for universities and university colleges.
Cristin for more information about registration of academic publication.

Levels

The register gives an overview over which publication channels that are registered and their current level.

Level 2 is the highest level. The scientific panels carry out the yearly nomination for level 2. Independent scholars can give feedback to the scientific panels through NPI or comment directly at the publication channel in the register.

Level 1 are publication channels considered to satisfy the minimum requirement to be counted as scientific (external peer review, scientific editorial board and minimum national authorship).

Level 0 means that the publication channel has been considered but rejected. The publication channel is not approved and publishing in it will not yield publication points. If you still want to publish in a publication channel that currently have level 0, you can re-submit it. We will then re-consider it for level 1 at a decision meeting.

Level x are publication channels where we are in doubt whether the publication channel should be approved or not, considering current criteria and available information. If the publication channel is at level X, the level it had before will be the counting level in terms of publication points. If the publication channel is new to the register and it is given level X directly, it will count as level 0.

It is not necessary to submit publication channels for level 1 when they are at level x, but you are welcome to comment on the specific publication channel with a professional comment.

Decision meetings

We treat submissions for level 1 at a decision meeting. We also treat concerns about approved publication channels and complaints about decisions.

We have decision meetings three times during the year, in June, October and January. The decision meeting in June is the first for the current year, while the meeting in January the following year is the last for the current year.

Advisers from the Directorate, representatives from the National Board of Scholarly Publishing (NPU) and observer from Cristin participates at the decision meetings.

The Directorate treats the submissions and suggest levels (level 1/level 0) that the representatives approve at the decision meetings. Submissions where the Directorate are unsure whether they fulfil the criteria or not, are marked as "særsak". "Særsak" is also used on already approved publication channels that have received messages of concern and/or complaints about the last decision. The "særsak" is discussed at the decision meetings and will therefore not have a suggested level before the decision meeting.

Deadline

The final deadline each year is 30. November.

You must submit by the final deadline, 30. November, for us to treat it and approve it for the current year. If you submit after this date, we will not treat it before the following year.

To be sure that we treat your submission at the decision meeting in June or October, submit it in good time. Otherwise, we might not be able to treat it at the meetings. However, we will treat all submission registered by 30. November at the decision meeting in January.

Decision level 1/level 0

At the decision meetings, we settle the levels for the submissions we have treated (level 1 or level 0). The level we set take effect from the current year and onwards.

On some occasions, we wish more information or an evaluation from the relevant scientific panel before we decide the level. We will then delay the decision about level to next decision meeting.

We sometimes receive feedbacks that questions the status of an approved publication channel. When this happens, we re-consider the publication channel. If we decide that the publication level does not fulfil the criteria for being approved, we will downgrade it to level 0. Level 0 will take effect from the following year. Thus, the publication channel keeps its level 1 for the current year.

From level X to level 1/level 0

If we are in doubt whether the publication channel should be approved or not, we may consider it for level X. In these cases, we will address the relevant scientific panel. If the scientific panel agrees, the publication channel will be put at level X.

We reconsider publication channels at level X at the next decision meeting. This will be dependent on if we have enough decision basis to make a new evaluation, based on comments and available information. The goal is to make a final decision at the last meeting of the year. However, when publication channels get level X by the end of the year, this will not always be possible.

The decisions about level X, follows the same logic as the usual decisions about level 1 and level 0. I.e., if a publication channel goes from level X to level 1, level 1 counts immediately. If a publication channels goes from level X to level 0, level 0 will take effect from the following year.

We will not reconsider publication channels for level 1 before after two years, when a publication channel goes from level X to level 0.

Rejection (level 1)

If we reject your submission (not approved as scientific publication channel), you still can get it approved for the current year.

You can re-submit the publication channel. You should then be sure to add new/more documentation as missing documentation often is the reason why we reject the submission. See Criteria for inclusion of scientific publication channels.

You can appeal the decision by sending the appeal to publiseringskanaler@hkdir.no. We will then treat the appeal at the next decision meeting.

The decision meeting in January

The decision meeting in January are a bit special, as it is the concluding meeting for the previous year.

Publication channels that we here give level 1 have retroactive effect, e.g., level 1 takes effect from the previously year and onwards. Publication channels that we here give level 0, will have level 0 from the current year and onwards. If we have cases that we need to follow up after the meeting, we will try to resolve them quickly in order to give them a level for the previously year.

We do not normally treat appeals on decisions from this meeting before next decision meeting in June. If we change the level because of the appeal, the level will take effect from the current year, not the previous year even though it was suggested in time.

Scopus channels

The Norwegian Register receives throughout the year so called Scopus channels from Cristin. The Scopus channels are publication channels indexed in the Scopus database that have published contributions from Norwegian scholars. Cristin imports these publications from Scopus and pass information to the Norwegian Register. The Norwegian Register will treat the Scopus channels the same way as the ordinary submissions.

The Scopus channels may be received after the decision meeting in January. If the Scopus channels contained contributions from Norwegian authors the previous year, they will be treated for inclusion for the previous year. But only if it is possible within internal deadlines for completing the work related to the previous year.

Successors

So called successors are journals and series that continues ceased journals or series. The successor will inherit the level of the predecessor if the predecessor already is indexed at level 1 or level 2 and if the criteria for level 1 are fulfilled. The successors receive new ISSN and must therefore be registered as new publication channels and treated the same way as the other submissions.

Decisions level 2

The National Board of Scholarly Publication decides if a publication channel should be upgraded to level 2 or be downgraded from level 2 to level 1. The National Board of Scholarly Publishing base the decision on recommendations from the different scientific panels.

Independent scholars can make suggestions for level 2 by adding a professional comment in the feedback form. The comment will be public through the comment tabs, which you can find at the information page for each scientific field at NPI.

Nomination for level 2

The scientific panels have the responsibility for execute the yearly nomination for level 2. They normally start in August and finish in November. Each scientific panel have decision meetings where they make recommendations for The National Board of Scholarly Publishing. The latter goes through the nomination at their last meeting of the year. They approves or disapproves the recommendations. You can find the nominations, both approved and not approved, with justification, at the page of each scientific field.

To give some predictability, level 2 has a delay in two years. This means that a decision about upgrading to level 2 or downgrading from level 2, first will take effect two years after the nomination occurred.

Feedback

Please send an e-mail to publiseringskanaler@hkdir.no if you have questions or feedback regarding the register.

You can also comment directly at a publication channel. In the Norwegian Register, you will find the feedback form at the bottom of the page when you are logged in and at a specific publication channel.

Do you see wrong information? Choose “update information”. The comment will only be shown for you and the administrator.
Do you think a publication channel should have a reconsideration? Comment with “report concern”. The comment will be public.
Do you think a publication channel should be at level 2, or do you have other professional comments? Give a “professional comment”. The comment will be public.

Publication channels at level X do not have options for the feedback. The comment will be public.

NB! Publication channels at level 0 must be suggested as new publication channels in order to be considered for level 1. We do not change the information under criteria, unless the publication channel is resuggested.