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The classification provides information about scientific publication channels’ impact and how highly regarded they are amongst the scientific community. The evaluation is carried out by 23 discipline-specific expert panels consisting of approximately 300 scholars of merit who are either Finnish or work in Finland. The scientific community is also able to participate in the classification by proposing amendments. The aim is to encourage Finnish researchers to publish their research findings in high-quality Finnish and foreign forums.

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The JUFO level of a publication channel indicates the average level of competition and peer review passed by the articles and books, but the highly respected high-level publication channels also feature weaker publications with a fairly low impact. Similarly, the lower level publication channels sometimes produce publications that prove to be highly impactful. Due to this, this classification should only be used to assess large quantities of publications, such as for macro-level reviews of the publication production of research organisations, research fields or the entire country. The classification is not well-suited to assessing the merits of individual researchers and it cannot replace an evaluation performed by the experts of the field in science in question in a recruitment process, for example. Read more about the limitations of the JUFO classification in the user guide for the Publication Forum classification.

The classification system has been used as the quality indicator of scholarly publications produced by universities since 2015 as part of a university funding model introduced by the Ministry of Education and Culture. A total of 14 per cent of universities’ basic funding is allocated on the basis of scientific publications and other publications.

JUFO portal

The publication channel database of the Publication Forum contains the data of more than 3537,000* scientific publication channels , that are available through the the JUFO Portalportal (*in 2022). The basic information on publication channels and the level classifications are available to all, in addition to which users can propose amendments to the classification by registering as users of the portal. The table below (Table 1) describes the JUFO portal functionalities for registered and unregistered users in more detail.

Anyone can register as the portal user and access the functionalities that require being logged in. Signing in is done via Eduuni, so the first step in registration is to register as an Eduuni user. See more detailed instructions for registration (in Finnish)

February 2025). In addition, the portal also contains professional and general journals used by Finnish researchers, which are excluded from the JUFO classification. The user guide of the JUFO portal describes the search functions of the portal as well as the information available of the publication channels in the portal.

The JUFO portal also serves as a tool for the Publication Forum secretariat and panels to process and evaluate publication channels. The secretariat handles The JUFO portal is also a tool for the secretariat and panels of Publication Forum for processing and evaluating publication channels. The secretariat receives and processes the proposals for new additions and level amendments through the portal, and allocates marks the publication channels to be evaluated for the panels. The panel members then carry out Panelists do most of their evaluation work through in the portal.

Table 1. JUFO Portal’s information and functionalities for registered and unregistered users.

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All

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• Finding a publication channel based on a name, ISSN/ISBN code, JUFO level, panel, type of publication channel, open access, country, language or classification of field of science, for example 
• Downloading the search results as an Excel file

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• Basic information on the publication channel
  • Name
  • JufoID
  • JUFO level
  • Type of publication channel
  • ISSN/ISBN code
  • Publisher
  • Country
  • Language
  • Year started and eded
  • Evaluation panel
• Websites related to the publication channel (home page, Sherpa Romeo, research.fi)
• Journal checker tool widget
• Classifications of fields of science
• Indexing
• Open access
• Evaluation history

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Additional services for registered users

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• Comparing publication channels field-specifically using indicators
• Proposing a level amendment
• Proposing the inclusion of a new publication channel
• Proposing corrections to a publication channel’s information
• Putting together a Top 10 list of publication channels most important to the user

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It is possible for the research community to participate in the activities of the Publication Forum by registering as a user of the portal and making suggestions for publication channels through it. Anyone can register as a user of the portal. Registration is done through Eduuni.