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The monograph is still an important form of publication for researchers within many disciplines, but is sometimes questioned, as today it fails in many cases to undergo a clear and documented review process equal to that of scientific papers.
Kriterium aims both to reinforce the status of scientific monographs in Sweden, and in an international perspective, to provide a label of quality for Swedish research results, using the same methods as other nations.
Kriterium accepts and reviews research results intended for publication as a monograph, from any seats of learning, and any publisher. The main target group includes researchers and research associated with Sweden, and particular effort is made to maintain the tradition of publishing scientific monographs in Sweden.
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions.
Kriterium is a collaboration between universities, publishers and the National Library of Sweden, and received additional funding from the Swedish Research Council and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
Seats of learning represented in the steering group include Gothenburg University, Karlstad University, Linköping University, Linnaeus University, Lund University, Malmö University, Mälardalen University, Stockholm University, Södertörn University college, Umeå University, Uppsala University and Örebro University. Further represented are the National Library of Sweden, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Swedish Research Council. Two publishers are also represented; Nordic Academic Press and Makadam. The participation of the universities includes their respective university publication series.
Read an article about Kriterium as an independent body in the effort to make scientific monographs accessible. Kriterium has been developed in close contact with the research community and environment, according to a need identified by Swedish researchers within the fields of humanities and social sciences. The Kriterium method for peer review has some unique and innovative traits, believed by the authors to be relevant to an international audience. “Ensuring Quality and Status: Peer Review Practices in Kriterium, A Portal for Quality-Marked Monographs and Edited Volumes in Swedish SSH” by Björn Hammarfelt, Isak Hammar and Helena Francke.
This is a link to the evaluations from the pilot project of 2015-2017: Kriterium: Erfarenhet från en pilotfas by Isak Hammar and Utvärdering Kriterium: Pilotprojektet by Helena Francke.
All books reviewed through Kriterium will be freely available in digital form through open access. This provides excellent dissemination and retrievability for the research, and serves as a complement to the printed volume. The work of Kriterium makes it possible for researchers to easily meet the demand for open access, without compromising quality. Published titles are listed via www.kriterium.se and can also be obtained from the publisher or the publication series issuing the book. Authors are encouraged to add their titles to the digital archives of the author’s own university library (such as DiVA, LUP, GUP). The finished book is published both as a monograph by the publisher, and open access as a PDF or other electronic format as requested, via the kriterium webpage. In addition, all books are published open access via OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) and DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books), including only peer review studies. Kriterium e-books are also made available through JSTOR, a non-profit organization with the task of creating and maintaining a reliable archive of important scientific journals and books and providing access to them. The JSTOR content spans many disciplines, mainly within humanities and social sciences. JSTOR currently contains about 100,000 e-books and collaborates with libraries, publishers and researchers worldwide.
Kriterium is not a publisher; it is a mark of quality. Formally, Kriterium is a series in which publication always occurs in collaboration with another publisher. The titles included in Kriterium are also simultaneously published through another established channel: a university series, a commercial publisher or another academic series. These channels handle the practical aspects of publishing, while Kriterium supplies and manages the academic quality review.
The Norwegian Centre for Research Data has approved the Kriterium request to be accepted for the Norwegian Scientific Index. The approval means that books published through Kriterium will be awarded publication points. The fact that Kriterium has become an approved channel for publication provides opportunity for an increased number of scholars to make visible the qualitative research that is carried out at the respective seats of learning, and facilitates the process of issuing scientific books for any publisher. Kriterium has sprung from a need to safeguard the scientific monograph. In a time of changing publication patterns and shifting systems for grant allocation, Kriterium offers and new, sustainable way to review and distribute scientific works, and to provide them with a mark of quality.
Kriterium has sprung from a need to safeguard the scientific monograph. In a time of changing publication patterns and shifting systems for grant allocation, Kriterium offers and new, sustainable way to review and distribute scientific works, and to provide them with a mark of quality, in line with established principles for open access. Above all, Kriterium operates in relation to researchers and research connected to Sweden, and particular effort is made to maintain the tradition of publishing scientific monographs in Sweden.
Kriterium works to achieve its goals by
• providing a common national mark of quality for peer-reviewed academic books;
• striving for a high level of visibility, dissemination and recognition of both Kriterium itself and of individual works in both digital open access format and in print;
• publishing academic books according to established open access principles;
• working for increased open access publication of quality academic books;
• representing a clear quality label within open access publication of scholarly works;
• collaborating with university-affiliated book series and academically-oriented publishing houses regarding the publication and distribution of Kriterium books in printed form;
• being non-commercial, and instead controlled by researchers in collaboration with Swedish universities, national research organisations and sources of research funding;
• maintaining, making available and safeguarding the quality of the academic peer review process;
• creating openly available and enduring general principles as well as details of the peer review process;
• being a voice and network of expertise as well as a source of influence regarding questions about the infrastructure for academic publication, in general and more specifically for publication in printed form as well as open access e-books, including both monographs and anthologies;
• active contribution to the preservation of academic traditions and the unique aspects of academic book publishing within the framework of the qualitative academic book series with a unique ISSN that Kriterium is.
