 All the 16 Finnish universities enter publications to their own publication registers and submit the information to the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture annually  Universities apply different information collection methods and use different information systems  Until 2010, only publication counts were required  From 2011 on, also bibliographic data of publications are reported:  Bibliographic notes: Title of publication, author names, title of journal/publisher, volume, issue, ISSN/ISBN etc.  Scientific fields (from 1 to 6 per publication)  Publication type (according to a 16-itemized categorization)

 The duplicates are removed and false information (e. g. conflicting publication types, typing errors in ISSN numbers) are corrected centrally  In 2011, the total of 35,000 publications were reported  Statistical data on universities’ publications will be available in the national reporting portal providing diverse statistical and indicator-based data on all sectors of education: vipunen.csc.fi/  ”Publication portal” in a planning phase: would enable browsing and searches from the bibliographic data (pilot version ready by the end of 2012)

 “National publication register project” ( ) was launched jointly by the Ministry of Education and Culture and higher education institutions  A proposal was drawn up for a shared national research information system in which all Finnish public research organisations would primarily enter their publications  However, the Ministry concluded in the end of 2011 that  the existing decentralised data collection meets Ministry’s needs  the Ministry will not intervene on which information systems are used by the universities  the universities are free to consider whether they should produce joint research information systems

 Publications as one criterion in the Finnish universities’ budget funding model since 2007  In , only 1.7% of the total budget funding was distributed according to publishing performance  For , the share of publications will be increased to 13%  New quality indicator of scientific publications from 2015 on: Publication Forum level ratings 9% of the total budget funding 4% of the total budget funding International peer- reviewed publications Other scientific/scholarly publications Publication Forum levels 2 and 3 Publication Forum level 1

 Working group of the Finnish Council of University Rectors 2009: How to evaluate the quality of scientific publishing?  Citation analysis: problems of database coverage in humanities, social sciences and engineering  Norwegian and Danish model: rating of all relevant ”scientific publication channels” by expert panels  Publication Forum Project was founded in 2010 to produce a national rating of journals, conference and book series, and book publishers in all disciplines  Publication Forum is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and organised by Federation of Finnish Learned Societies

 23 panels created (210 panelists)  partly overlapping lists of serials, a common book publisher list  Level quotas based on number of titles, not of publications  Level 1=scientific publication channels (80%)  Level 2=leading scientific publication channels (20%)  Level 3=”high-end” leading journals and series (25% of level 2)  in the funding model no distinction between level 2 and 3

 Regular updates of ratings:  New publication channels added to level 1 every year (next round 2012)  Ratings revised every 3 years (next round 2014)  Data quality  Application of ratings to reported publications important challenge for data collection  A national working group has been set to improve the quality of universities’ publication data  Nordic collaboration?

Contact Hanna-Mari Puuska Tel: Janne Pölönen Tel: WWW: