KI-JL background
On 25 May, the Faculty Board approved the first level-graded journal list, KI-JL 2026 (Dnr 2-1422/2025). The list comprised 6,859 journals classified into levels 1 to 3 and level 0. This decision was preceded by two years of work, beginning with an investigation of the conditions, development of the process, appointment of the panel, decisions on criteria and principles, and an internal consultation round at KI.
Background
The number of scholarly publications has more than doubled over the past 15 years (from approximately 3,900 in 2010 to approximately 7,000 in 2025), and the number of journals has also increased substantially. At the same time, there has been a growing focus on open access publishing to make research findings accessible. This development has coincided with an increase in journals with inadequate peer review and other quality problems in the publishing system. There is also greater awareness of the limitations of quantitative, non-normalized bibliometric indicators based on citations, such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and the H-index, partly through CoARA, of which KI is a member. KI’s current recommendations to researchers on publishing date from 2011 and place considerable emphasis on the JIF when selecting a journal.
For this reason, on 19 June 2024 the Committee for Research asked the University Library, together with the Open Science Working Group, to develop a proposal for the practical design of a local level-graded journal list. This resulted in a feasibility study report (Dnr 2-1422/2025), which was presented to the Committee for Research on 4 April 2025. The feasibility study report formed the basis for the Committee for Research’s decision to establish the Karolinska Institutet Journal List (KI-JL).
Conditions for KI-JL
The preliminary study identified several prerequisites that made it possible for KI to develop its own local-graded journal list:
- A bibliometrics system based on Web of Science and PubMed.
- Expertise in bibliometrics and scientific publishing.
- The existing national journal lists from Norway and Finland, which are open and can be used as a basis for levels, criteria and process.
The panel
On 17 September 2025, the Committee for Research appointed a panel tasked with developing KI-JL 2026. The panel was nominated by KI’s three deans (departmental group leaders) and consisted of 10 members, including a chair and one member with expertise in open science. Members were appointed for terms of one or two years, with the possibility of extension for up to two years, to ensure continuity and prevent the entire panel from being replaced at the same time.
Levels in the journal list
The President’s decision of 26 September 2025 on a performance-based allocation model for funding for research and doctoral education (Dnr 1-929/2025) stipulated that, from 2026, part of the allocation to research would be based on KI-JL. The decision also delegated approval of the list to the Faculty Board, which in turn delegated preparation of the list to the Committee for Research on 23 October 2025. The President’s decision also established the number of levels in the list and their relative sizes.
KI’s journal list is divided into four levels:
- Level 0: the journal does not fulfill the criteria for scientific publishing.
- Level 1: the journal fulfills the criteria for scientific publishing (80%).
- Level 2: the journal is of high standard (15%).
- Level 3: the journal is of the highest quality (5%).
The higher levels should be distributed across different subject areas. By reusing data from Norway and Finland, where assessments are carried out by more subject-specific panels, a distribution across subject areas can be ensured for automatically generated levels.
Potential uses of KI-JL
In addition to creating a shared and ongoing discussion at KI about quality in scholarly publishing, the process of developing KI-JL may support applications in three main categories:
Guidance for researchers
- When assessing journal quality, for example to make it easier to avoid journals with questionable scientific practices before accepting or undertaking:
- publishing,
- peer review assignments, and
- editorial assignments.
Supporting information for KI’s management
- Serve as a tool for updated publishing guidelines at KI.
- Contribute to ensuring that quality in scholarly journals has greater impact when evaluating publishing agreements and costs.
Qualitative complement to JIF
- Allocation of government research funding to KI’s departments in accordance with the President’s decision of 26 September 2025 (Dnr 1-929/2025; see above).
- For example, in merit assessment, evaluation and communication.
- Fulfil KI’s commitments as a member of CoARA.
- Create an indicator of journal quality that is independent of proprietary products from commercial actors.
Establishment of the journal list
KI-JL 2026 was approved by the Faculty Board on 5 May 2026. The decision was preceded by information and discussion on several occasions in both the Faculty Board and the Committee for Research. Throughout the project, information about the work on the journal list was published continuously on the project website. Information about the journal list and the consultation round was also presented at meetings of the departmental groups.
June 2024: The Committee for Research discusses the conditions for developing a local tiered journal list.
April 2025: The Committee for Research decides to establish a local tiered journal list based on the preliminary study.
September 2025: The President decides that the list will be used in resource allocation. The Committee for Research decides to appoint a panel.
December 2025: The Committee for Researchdecides on principles for inclusion and tiering.
March 2026: General consultation period at KI.
April-May 2026: The Committee for Researchdecides on KI-JL 2026. Faculty Board approves KI-JL 2026.
Inclusion criteria and criteria for level classification
The inclusion criteria and principles for level-grading were approved by the Committee for Research on 15 December 2025. KI’s journal list focuses on scholarly journals in medicine and health sciences. The list includes journals in which KI has published during the past seven years, as well as journals in medicine and health sciences categorized at the highest levels in the Norwegian and Finnish registers, or at level 0 in those registers. An overarching condition was that the journals be indexed in KI’s Bibliometric System, which is based on data from PubMed and Web of Science.
Criteria for level classification for KI-JL 2026:
- Reputation
- Innovation and originality
- Peer review
- Impact and utilisation
- Organisation and communication
- Open science
Consultation round
The preliminary list made available for advisory consultation contained 6,793 journals. The consultation period for the first version of the list was open for two and a half weeks in March 2026, and all KI employees with a KI account were able to participate.
A total of 946 responses were received from 318 respondents. Of these, 780 proposed a change of level, concerning 388 journals. Following the panel’s review, this resulted in 147 changes of journal level, comprising 120 increases and 27 decreases.
A total of 160 responses proposed the inclusion of an additional journal. Of these, 50 journals were already included in the list, while 79 journals met the condition of being included in KI’s Bibliometric System and could therefore be added at level 1 or level 0.
KI-JL 2026
The first version of KI-JL contains 6,859 journals, of which 5,904 are at levels 1–3. Within levels 1–3, the volume of articles is distributed as follows: level 3 5%, level 2 16% and level 1 79%*. 955 journals appear at level 0 in the list, a large proportion of which (429) have no publications from KI. 142 journals were categorised as level 3. A large proportion of the journals publish articles in medicine and health, but the list also has some coverage in areas such as physics, technology, chemistry and social sciences.
*Because the journals vary in size in terms of publication volume, volume shares are based on the number of articles at the different levels rather than the number of journals. The number of articles has been calculated in aggregate for Web of Science and PubMed and covers original articles and review articles from 2018 up to and including 2025.
| Level | # Journals | % of the list (level 1-3) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 955 | – |
| 1 | 5110 | 78,9% |
| 2 | 652 | 16,3% |
| 3 | 142 | 4,8% |
| Summa | 6859 | 100% |