The Finnish Publication Forum Project

Publication Forum Project aims at quality classification of scientific publication channels, especially journals and book publishers, in all research fields. The project was launched in August 2010 at the initiative of the Universities Finland. It is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and is based in the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. The project has a steering group and a secretariat.

 

Evaluation and ranking of publication channels takes place in 23 field specific expert panels consisting of 6-13 members. Scientific publication channels are defined as print or digital journals, regular conference series, and anthology and book series of publishers that specialize in publishing research; that is, they have an editorial board of experts in the research field, and that publication is subject to an accepted form of quality control, especially peer-review.

The Publication Forum Project rates publication channels in two categories: domestic and foreign scientific publication channels (level 1), and the leading scientific publication channels (level 2). The level 1 covers the central publication channels of domestic and foreign origin that meet the criteria of scientific publication channel. The level 2 covers the leading scientific publication channels, in which the researchers from different countries publish their best research. Each panel rates to the level 2 at most 20 % of the journals and series belonging to its area of research. This share is calculated from the number of publication channels on the panels list. A panel may also choose to classify 25% of the level 2 journals and series in its list to level 3 to mark out the world top publication channels in its field. The list of book publishers is shared by all panels (though it is of concern mainly to social science and humanities panels), and at most 100 publishers can be rated to level 2.

 

The panel specific journal/series lists are based on journal/series data drawn from six sources: the master journal list of Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science, the title list of Elsevier’s Scopus, the journal ranking lists produced in Norway, Denmark and Australia, and European Science Foundation’s European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH). In addition to the international sources, certain national data sources have been searched for the Finnish publication channels. Also the panelists have introduced to the lists channels not found in the sources. Journals and series have been assigned to panels according to the field classifications given in the sources, and because of multiple classifications there is considerable overlap between the panel lists. In all, the rating currently covers around 20,000 international and national journals and series. The publisher list of around 2,000 titles is based on the list produced in the Norwegian rating of publishers, and has been expanded with publishers introduced by the panelists.

 

Panel	Journals/ series	Fields
1	1020	Mathematics and Statistics
2	1109	Computer and Information Sciences
3	743	Physical Sciences, Space Science and Astronomy
4	811	Chemical Sciences
5	896	Geosciences and Environmental Sciences
6	678	Biosciences I
7	967	Biosciences II
8	687	Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
9	597	Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
10	1059	Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering and Environmental Engineering
11	1652	Medical Engineering, Biotechnology and Basic Medicine
12	1110	Clinical Medicine I
13	1270	Clinical Medicine II and Dentistry
14	1022	Health Sciences and Other Medical Sciences
15	880	Agricultural Sciences
16	1325	Economics and Business
17	2222	Sociology, Media and Communications, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
18	1539	Psychology and Educational Sciences
19	1228	Political Science, Administration and Law
20	1285	Philosophy and Theology
21	1079	Linguistics
22	1979	Literature, Art and Architecture
23	2230	HIstory, Archaeology and Cultural Studies
Total	19284	All fields

 

Complete lists of journals and series under evaluation in 2011 is here. Complete list of book publishers under evaluation in 2011 is here.

 

In addition to bibliographic data and field classification, the panel lists contain bibliometric indicators and peer ratings produced in other projects comparable to the Finnish Publication Forum Project.

In case of channels included in the databases of Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science or Elsevier’s Scopus, three impact factors are available: Journal Impact Factor (JIF), Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). The publication channel lists also contain, where available, the rating the channels have been awarded in Norwegian, Danish and Australian classification schemes, and in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) produced by the European Science Foundation. The impact factors and the ratings are not binding on the panels, but panels must discuss and deliberate on the weight to be given to this data in rating of publication channels.