Publishing at K2
When the UiB Rector visited K2 last week, she asked about our publication strategy. K2’s strategy is quite simple: We publish open access as much as possible, and when we have strong and very interesting data, we try to publish in so called Level 2 journals. These are the top 20% highest-ranked journals within their field, and the list is updated annually by the National Publication Committee (NPU) and HK-dir. In 2024, 18% of K2’s 422 publications were in Level 2 journals. This is also the average for the Faculty of Medicine. For K2, it should be an objective to exceed 20% in Level 2 publications in order to demonstrate the overall quality of our research. Unfortunately, many Level 2 journals are still not fully open access. We can help promote fully open access Level 2 journals by publishing in them and having publication fees covered by UiB’s Publication Fund for open publishing.
Based on the number of publications, levels, and international collaboration, publication points are calculated. Until 2024, these were used to adjust funding for research institutions in Norway. This is no longer done, but the metric may still be a useful indicator to monitor, considering how well we manage under increasingly tight budget constraints. In the health trusts, publication points will continue to influence funding.
For this statistic to be accurate, it is important that affiliations are written correctly in submitted manuscripts from K2. AI tools often mistranslate this. The correct affiliation, where K2 is the employer or has otherwise contributed to participation in a study, is: Department of Clinical Science,Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen
Finally, the K2 leadership congratulates Lars Herfindal, Professor of Pharmacology and the new Head of the Centre for Pharmacy, on receiving the prestigious Olav Thon Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching.