Norwegian research council’s Publication grants to Scholarly Journals Presentation to NSSJP meeting November 25th 2009 Rune R. Schjølberg, senior advisor

Background  Norwegian research council covers all academic disciplines  From 2001 publication grants only available for Arts & Humanities and Social sciences  Key rationale for funding scheme  Importance of Norwegian language  National/Nordic topics  Limited market possibilities for Norwegian publications  + New bibliometrics to describe publication patterns within A&H and Social sciences

Academic publication in Norway – channels and language ( )

Publication grants for the Arts & humanities and Social sciences (PUBL)  Supports scholarly journals and publication of scientific monographs and anthologies  High scientific quality as key criteria  Support internationalization of Norwegian research through non- Scandinavian publications  Budget 2009: 5,3 mill NOK (€ )  Scholarly journals (60%)  Books (40%)  6 member publication grants panel appointed for 3 years  Rapport presented in September 2009 to the Division board  Description and “evaluation” of the funding scheme  Identified certain challenges and proposed action plan up to new panel appointment in 2010  New guidelines for journal and book applications due in December

Grants for scholarly journals ( )  Costs covered:  Publication, printing and dissemination  Subscription fees and other earnings deducted  Minimum of 200 subscribers  119 applications between  37 journals supported in 2008, average € each  Language  17 Norwegian and Scandinavian (some abstracts in English)  15 mixed language Norwegian, Scandinavian, English and German  4 English only  1 Sami  Supported journals accounted for 403 ”publication points” in 2007, 20 % of all journal publication in A&H and S.sci  Number of journals supported by discipline …

Discipline # of supported journals Subject’s pub-points 2007 Supported journal’s pub- points 2007Share History % Theology and Religious studies % Scandinavian language studies411666,9958 % General Literature37532,544 % General Social science38024,4131 % Archaeology27328,1439 % Political science211825,6722 % Sociology % Philosophy and History of ideas16814,0221 % General Humanities % Musicology % Social anthropology15714,0224 % Media and communication % Art history % Cultural studies1519,519 % Legal studies % Classical studies % Educational studies12989,753 % Linguistics11174,54 % Economics1148,754,53 %

Grants for scholarly journals - Key issues  19 of the supported journals print-only  Print-only journals documented with lower ”impact”  Need for ”digitalization” scheme  NOP-HS as proposed model  ”Soft” pressure, no mandatory digitalization  Evaluation of supported journals  Need for more frequent evaluation with a combination of bibliometrics and qualitative review  Open Access  Compliance with Research Council’s ”green road” OA policy  No grant applications for Open Access Journals received so far …

Grants for Open Access Journals – a possible pilot  Successful applications must comply with established standards  Peer review, high scientific quality and impact  National and/or international audience with a documented demand (number of unique readers)  Financing model  The Research council will not fully finance OAJs  Other funding from institutions, submission fees, etc  Need for a realistic publication costs approach  Grant value may be based on planned number of articles, number of pages or other standardized parameter