NAFOSTED Fund: Expected new journal list

As a matter of practice, the NAFOSTED Foundation uses publications in reputable international journals listed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases as the criteria for evaluating both the input (the selection criteria for grant applications) and output (the criteria for determining whether a funded project is successful or not). If the input requirement is mandatory publication in a reputable international journal within the past five years, the output requirement is at least two publications in reputable international journals (plus one publication in a reputable national journal). In cases where a project has publications in a reputable ISI journal, this can substitute for the two standard publications. This is also one of the Foundation's efforts to encourage project leaders to improve the quality of publications from projects funded by the Foundation. 

With this same objective in mind, in June 2020, the NAFOSTED Foundation invited eight scientific councils to discuss the list of international specialized scientific journals and how to eliminate low-quality journals that could affect the research quality of the projects. Dr. Do Tien Dung stated that the scientific councils had reached an initial consensus: to request that scientists not publish articles in low-quality journals that require payment for publication; the scientific councils need to carefully consider the quality of journals and the content of published works when evaluating application dossiers and assessing the results of projects funded by the Foundation; and the scientific councils and the Foundation's governing body will continue to review the list of reputable journals.

Currently, the disciplinary councils are discussing updating, classifying, and ranking journals to create a new list. “It is expected that the Foundation will have this list by September, but basically, the Foundation and the councils' approach is to base it on the updated rankings from Web of Science, Scopus, etc., eliminating low-quality journals to focus on publication quality and ensure scientific rigor,” said Dr. Do Tien Dung.

During the discussion on the list of prestigious international journals, did the industry councils consider the case of open-access journals? Dr. Do Tien Dung stated that open access is one of the current publishing trends in the world, aiming to facilitate access for researchers, especially scientists in less developed countries, to new scientific works without paying access fees. Many meetings of global science foundations that the Foundation participates in have mentioned this trend and considered it a form of publishing that needs to be supported and promoted. However, the world is currently discussing the classification of open-access journals with peer review versus those that are fraudulent or "predatory," focusing only on collecting publication fees but neglecting peer review. Therefore, the Foundation also treats open-access journals in a similar manner. 

Since there is currently no new list of reputable international journals, the criteria for evaluating applications for funding basic research projects in the fields of natural sciences and engineering for the first round of 2020 will still be based on the journal list published on August 9, 2019, by the sectoral councils. When evaluating projects based on the publications resulting from the projects, the councils will rely on the journal list in effect at the time of evaluation.

In this review round, 178 projects were approved for funding, with the largest number in physics (51 projects), followed by chemistry (31 projects); mechanics (22); life sciences - agricultural biology (18); earth and environmental sciences (16); mathematics, information science and computer science (15); and life sciences - biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences (10).
(According to Tiasang.com.vn)