Choose the right publication channel and avoid fraud

Target group​

• Who is the target group of your publication?
• Where do your peers publish?
• Where do relevant experts in your field publish?
• What are the relevant journals with regards to the research findings you want to publish?​​

Definition of academic publication

• Check the journal/publisher in the channel register of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) if you want to make sure that the publication earns publication points. Journals and publishers in the channel register are also quality assured
• In order for a publication to count as academic according to the reporting instructions of NVI, the Norwegian reporting system for academic publications in the HE sector, the publication must fulfil the following requirements:
  • 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​​

Open Access requirements

Nord University’s Open Access (OA) policy (PDF) provides guidelines on how Nord University’s researchers are to make their scholarly journal articles openly accessible. Furthermore, the Norwegian government and several research funders have requirements for Open Access. These requirements can be met by publishing Open Access on the publisher’s platform and/or by self-archiving in an institutional repository.

Open publishing on the publisher’s platform may involve paying a publication fee (Article Processing Charge, APC); if the journal is a pure OA journal or part of a OA publishing agreement, Nord University may cover the costs. To find out whether Nord University supports OA publishing in your chosen journal, please see our webpage on Open Access publishing.​​​

Avoid fraud

In recent years, there have been several incidents of fraud through so-called predatory journals and publishers. Many Open Access journals cover their costs through publishing fees (Article Processing Charges, APC). Fraudsters exploit this by establishing predatory journals that charge fees for services they do not provide (e.g. adequate peer-review). Recently fraudsters have also started organizing so-called ‘academic ’ conferences. All three types of fraud (journals, publishers, conferences) have in common a lack of quality assurance in research.