Classification of journals in the QUALIS System of CAPES URGENT need of changing the criteria!

QUALIS: The journal ranking system undermining the impact of Brazilian science

“…Likewise, they reveal that a journal ranking system based on the realized impact of journals would avoid introducing distorted incentives, and thereby boost the global impact of Brazilian science (da Silva, 2009). It is also difficult to justify QUALIS as a mean to promote national journals in the age of open-access and pre-prints (Rocha-e-Silva, 2009b;Andriolo et al, 2010;Kellner, 2017), and less so if it is at the expense of the global impact of Brazilian science (Ferreira, Antoneli & Briones, 2013). QUALIS was once considered a temporary strategy (da Silva, 2009), and a recent report by CAPES has recommended it should not be used in the future any more, being replaced with "internationally established and broadly recognized metrics" (COMISSÃO ESPECIAL DE ACOMPANHAMENTO DO PNPG, 2020).…”

“…In 1998 the Brazilian agency responsible for establishing criteria for evaluating the performance of higher education institutions (CAPES) launched a journal ranking system called "QUALIS", which classified journals according to their distribution (local, national or international) and their quality within subject areas (A, B and C) (Andrade & Galembeck, 2009). In 2009 this system was replaced by a new QUALIS (currently in use), which uses a complicated suit of criteria (differing among subject areas) to group journals into eight discrete categories (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5 and C) (Andrade & Galembeck, 2009;Andriolo et al, 2010). Criteria include different impact factor metrics, the proportion of journals in each category, the relevance or prestige of journals within subject areas, the number of issues published per year, the publishers, the need to support certain Brazilian journals, among others (a full explanation of the criteria employed by each subject area is available in Portuguese at: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/ coleta/veiculoPublicacaoQualis/listaConsultaGeralPeriodicos.jsf).…”

“…Although the QUALIS system has been subject to substantial criticism (da Silva, 2009;Rocha-e-Silva, 2009a;Andriolo et al, 2010;Ferreira, Antoneli & Briones, 2013;Fernandes & Manchini, 2019), no systematic cross-subject area assessment has been yet performed to quantify its influence on the global impact of Brazilian science. This is surprising considering the system could create incentives to publish in low-impact journals ranked highly by QUALIS, thereby resulting in a decreased global impact.…”