International University Ranking Bodies:

1.  Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics)

2.  Shanghai Ranking Consultancy

3.  SCIMAGO Institutions Ranking

4.  The Times Higher Education World University Rankings

5.  QS World University Rankings

6.  CWUR World University Rankings

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Important Links:

1. jindex search engine for indexed journals (Click here)

2. Search Engine of Open Access Journal ISSN (Click here)

3. Search Engine of non-Open Access Journal ISSN (Click here)

4. Search Clarivate Analytics (Thomson Reuters) Master Journal List (Click here)

5. List of Science Citation index Expanded journals 2019 (Click here)

6. InCite Journal Citation Report (Thomson Reuters Impact Factor) - 2019 (Pls, check your University subscription)

7. Journal/Conference titles indexed in Scopus: Search engine

8. Journal titles indexed by/member of the Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ): Search engine

9. Famous Publishers Listed by Web of Science (Click here)

10. Highly prestigious international academic awards (Click here)

11. ISBN Book Search Engine (Click here)

12. WIPO - Patent Search Engine (Click here)

13. Universities Google Citations Lists (Click here)

14. Webometrics Universities Rank list,  July 2021 (Click here)

15. Top 10 Scientific Journals in your field (Click here)

16. List of Predatory Publishers (Click here)

17. List of Predatory Journals (Click here)

18. List of Hijacked Journals (Click here)

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Terms definition

Academic year calendar: The year started on 1st Sept.  and ends on 31 August, next year, including the two months July and August summer holiday.

NUR year calendar: It is a Gregorian Year, starts on 1st January and ends on 31 December.

NUR ranking sheet: An online Google spreadsheet that collects all the scientific activities of the Universities, and is no longer editable and accessible after 31 August.

NUR master sheet: An online Google spreadsheet that collects all the academic staff information, including the QA activities scores, and is no longer editable and accessible after 30 June.

NUR students master sheet: An online Google spreadsheet that collects all the students' information, and is no longer editable and accessible after 15 August.

Academic staff: A teaching or research staff that belongs (Milak) to public or private university. It is acceptable for the NUR that an academic staff to work in two places with two affiliations, only. For the research activities and others, it is accepted that the teaching staff write one or two the affiliations he/she belongs to. During the NUR year calendar, any academic staff shows any different research activities with a third affiliation,  all his/her activities will be EXCLUDED. The private university affiliation needs a one academic year contract, at least, between the staff and University. The academic staff includes; full-time academic staff, part-time academic, staff with paid leave, staff studying Ph.D. inside KRI or abroad.

I3ara Academic Staff: This type of academic staff is who got an unpaid leave for one or two years and started working in another public or private university. This academic staff is no longer belonging to his/her home university, till finishing the unpaid leave period. The Home university has no right to hire the i3ara teaching staff during the period of i3ara. All activities, including the research publication, with the home university affiliation during the period of i3ara will be EXCLUDED. e.g., an I3ara staff is working (2020-2022) with A-University and as a visiting lecturer in a B-University is considered by NUR, whereas, any activities shows the home University affiliation makes NUR to EXCLUDE all the academic staff's activities.

International academic staff:  A teaching or research staff who has non-Iraqi passport and working in one of the Universities in IKR, for at least one academic year.

Exchanged staff: A teaching or research staff who belongs to a University abroad and working in one of the Universities in IKR, for at least one academic year, based on an agreement between the foreign University and in the University in IKR.

International student: An undergraduate or post-graduate  student who has non-Iraqi passport and studying in one of the Universities in IKR, for at least one academic year.

Exchanged student: An undergraduate or post-graduate student who belongs to a University abroad and studying in one of the Universities in IKR, for at least one academic year, based on an agreement between the foreign University and in the University in IKR.

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Guidelines to Hold a Scientific Conference

The NUR is highly supporting the Departments and Faculties at KRG-Universities to hold national and International Scientific Conferences. To assure a quality conference, better electronic presence and saving the rights of the University, the NUR is taking the attention of all who may concern at the University that holding a conference, national or international, should comply with the regulation of the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) and NUR:

• Holding a National Conference

1. The conference should be under a clear title. 

2. The topics should be indicated.

3. The conference should be under a series of known frequency, e.g., annual, every couple years, etc. Single frequency conference is not preferred.

4. The conference should indicate, clearly, the Department or the Faculty that will be responsible for the conference, scientifically.

5. The steering committee of the conference should apply via its department or Faculty. The Scientific Committee should approve the request and explain the capacity of the Department or the Faculty to hold that conference.

6. It is the responsibility of the Conference steering committee to find the sponsors of their proposed conference.

7. The conference should be announced, at least 6 months, before the date of the conference.

8. The conference should apply/use a dedicated platform that shows the accepted papers, author names and affiliation, abstracts, full papers (PDF file), and the conference program.

9. The platform should show, clearly, the scientific committee, steering committee, track editors.

10. The conference can not be held without, at least, 10 accepted paper presentations.

• Holding an International Conference

1. The conference should be under a clear title. 

2. The topics should be assigned.

3. The conference should be under a series of known frequency, e.g., annual, every couple years, etc. Single frequency conference is not preferred.

4. The conference should indicate, clearly, the Department or the Faculty that will be responsible for the conference, scientifically.

5. The steering committee of the conference should apply via its department or Faculty. The Scientific Committee should approve the request and explain the capacity of the Department or the Faculty to hold that conference.

6. It is the responsibility of the Conference steering committee to find the sponsors of their proposed conference.

7. The conference should be announced electronically, at least 6 months, before the date of the conference.

8. The accepted papers should be presented via a dedicated platform. The platform should show all the conference committees, track editors, accepted papers,  author names and affiliations, paper abstracts, the Full PDF files and the conference program.

9. Each published paper should have a metadata page with a doi linked to.

10. The dedicated platform may not show the full PDF files and there is no need for the DOI, if and only if the PDF files are deposited to digital libraries, e.g., IEEE Xplore, Springer, etc.

11. The conference can not be held without, at least, 20 accepted paper presentations.

12. At least, 10% of the accepted papers should be from outside Iraq.

13. At least, 50% of the Scientific Committee members should be from outside Iraq.

14. At least, 50% of the Keynote Speakers should be from outside Iraq.

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Guidelines to Hold a Scientific Workshop

The NUR is highly supporting the Departments and Faculties at KRG-Universities to hold national and International Scientific Workshops. To assure a quality conference, better electronic presence and saving the rights of the University, the NUR is taking the attention of all who may concern at the University that holding a workshop, national or international, should comply with the regulation of the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) and NUR. The difference between a workshop and a conference is that workshops are generally smaller than conferences, and are usually only a day or two long, with no less than 2 hrs, and are dedicated to discussing a specific topic. The workshop is different than the Seminar . The Seminar depends on a presenter who presents his topic to audience, whereas, in the workshop there is a sort or lecturing, training and discussion, in addition to the presentation. The Workshop needs participants inputs, whereas, the Seminar does not. The Workshop is active, whereas, the Seminar is passive.

• Holding a National Workshop

1. The workshop should be under a clear title. 

2. The topics should be indicated.

3. The workshop should indicate, clearly, the Department or the Faculty that will be responsible for the conference, scientifically.

4. The workshop should be announced with a University/College decree, at least 1 month, before the date of the workshop.

5. The workshop should be announced in the University website, indicating the title, number of participants, time, date, place, presenters/Instructors names and their affiliation, and attached photos.

6. The workshop can not be held without, at least, 15 participants.

• Holding an International Workshop

1. The workshop should be under a clear title. 

2. The topics should be indicated.

3. The workshop should indicate, clearly, the Department or the Faculty that will be responsible for the conference, scientifically.

4. The workshop should be announced with a University/College decree, at least 3 months, before the date of the workshop.

5. The workshop should be announced in the University website, indicating the title, number of participants, time, date, place, presenters/Instructors names and their affiliation, and attached photos.

6. The workshop can not be held without, at least, 30 participants.

7. 50% of the presenters/Instructors at the workshop should be from Universities or Organization outside Iraq.

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Important notes about how and where to publish 

Do not

1. Publish in any journal that does not provide a complete paper's metadata that includes the full authors' names and affiliation, i.e., Department, Faculty, University and Country, regardless the indexing.

2. Publish in any of the journals that listed in the Predatory Journals menu. 

3. Publish in any of the journals that listed in the Hijacked Journals menu. 

4. Publish in any journal that has not indexing in SCOPUS (Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4) or Clarivate Analytics (WoS).

5. Publish in a indexed journal that provides a paper's DOI connected to the PDF file. The DOI should be connected to the metadata.

Do

1. Publish in a journal provide a metadata that includes the full authors' names and affiliation, i.e., Department, Faculty, University and Country. The paper's DOI should be connected to the metadata.

2. Publish in a journal that indexed by one, at least, of the following; SCOPUS (Q1, Q2, Q3 OR Q4) or Clarivate Analytics (WoS). 

3. Publish in a journal that issued inside Kurdistan (local journals) and approved by NUR-MHE with DOAJ membership. Local journals with non DOAJ membership has 50% weight.

Be careful

1. The published paper to be considered by NUR, its authors' affiliation should include a University scientific department.

2. NUR considers the SCOPUS-indexed journals with Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 quartiles, with weighting of 100%. 75% , 50% and 25%, respectively.

3. The journal indexing may be deactivated by the indexing bodies and organization. Thus NUR consider the list at the las minute before evaluation.

4. The local  journal with DOAJ indexing must provide DOI, Handles or ARK to its published papers.

5. Only the first till the tenth authors of published papers are considered by NUR.

6. NUR considers published papers for a University that affiliated as the first or second. Third or more affiliation is not considered.

7. NUR considers published papers with more than two affiliations for the PhD and Post Doctorate authors who affiliate their abroad universities and their research center.

8. NUR does not considers any published papers of authors of public universities who they have publication in more than one private university/institute affiliation. If so, all published papers of that author will be EXCLUDED.

9. NUR does not consider any published paper that affiliated to a public or private university with incorrect spelling, e.g., Koya University is not University of Koya and Salahaddin University is not Salahaddin University-Erbil.

10. NUR does not consider any published papers of authors with two public universities affiliations.

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Important notes about Google Scholar Citation

1. The local authority of all GSC lists of the all Universities/Institutes in IKR is the MHE.

2. The University/Institute is responsible for the quality of data that presented in the academic staff GSC lists.

3. The GSC list should be for the staff-members (Milak), retired with no any other University affiliation.

4. The affiliation in the GSC list of an academic is the home University, only.

5. The unpaid leave teaching staff (I3ara) must not affiliate the GSC list to his home University, but the university he is working with during the leave.

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Local Publications

Local or national journals are the scientific and academic journals that got license from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHE) and published inside Kurdistan Region-Iraq . The local journals to be considered by NUR must:

1. Have a license from the MHE

2. Following the publishing standards, e.g., have ISSN, metadata for each published paper, doi assigned to the metadata, affiliation in the metadata.

In Addition:
The journal that has a membership with the DOAJ will get the full score.
The journal that has not a membership with the DOAJ will get the half score.

Any scientific journal published inside Kurdistan Region-Iraq without a license from the MHE, the condition of international publication will be applied on, i.e., indexd by either SCOPUS or WoS.