Evaluation of the quality of scientific activities in 2026
The evaluation of the quality of scientific activity for the years 2022-2025 will take place in January 2026. As in the case of the previous evaluation (for the years 20217-2021), this one will also take into account scientific disciplines, not faculties. In order for a university to submit a given discipline for evaluation, this discipline must be represented by at least 12 scientists classified as N, employed full-time. Individual disciplines will be awarded scientific categories: A+, A, B+, B or C. The categories determine the rights to conduct studies, doctoral schools, award degrees and titles, as well as the amount of subsidies, i.e. financial resources that scientific units receive from the state budget.
The body established for this purpose - the Science Evaluation Committee (SEC, KEN in Polish) - will carry out this process based on three criteria (except for artistic disciplines):
- scientific and artistic level of the scientific activity conducted, basing on scientific articles, scientific monographs and patents and protection rights for utility models,
- financial effects of scientific research and development work,
- the impact of scientific activities on the functioning of society and the economy.
The weight of individual criteria will vary depending on the disciplines:
- field of humanities, field of social sciences and field of theological sciences: 1. - 70%, 2. - 10%, 3. - 20%
- field of exact and natural sciences and field of medical and health sciences: 1. - 60%, 2. - 20%, 3. - 20%
- field of engineering and technical sciences and field of agricultural sciences: 1. - 50%, 2. - 35%, 3. - 15%
The basis for assessing the first criterion, i.e. the scientific level of a university, is the number N, i.e. the average number of employees (counted in full-time contracts) employed in the unit in particular years when conducting scientific research or development work in a given discipline, i.e. in the case of universities, people employed in research and research and teaching positions.
The condition for including an employee in number N is to submit two declarations: entitling the university to include the employee in number N and a statement about the scientific disciplines represented. A declaration about the number N may be submitted only to one entity and to no more than 2 scientific disciplines.
The evaluation may also include the achievements of people not included in the N number, including doctoral students from the Doctoral School who conducted research in a given scientific discipline and submitted a declaration authorizing the university to demonstrate scientific achievement for the purposes of evaluation.
One of the most important principles adopted in the evaluation according to the first criterion is the principle of inheritance of prestige. According to this principle, an article (including a review article) is worth as much as the scientific journal in which it is published, and a scientific monograph (including translation or scientific edition of source texts) - as much as the publishing house that published it. This rule also applies to chapters of scientific monographs and scientific editing of such monographs.
The number of points assigned to a given journal or publishing house can be checked in current lists of scientific journals and reviewed materials from international conferences, as well as lists of publishing houses publishing peer-reviewed scientific monographs. It should be remembered that the point value of a scientific publication is determined in accordance with the last list of journals and the last list of publishing houses, prepared and made available by the minister in the calendar year in which a given scientific publication was published in its final form, appropriate for a given journal or publishing house.
The condition for including a given achievement in the evaluation of the quality of scientific activity is for the employee to submit a declaration authorizing the university to demonstrate it as a scientific achievement in a given scientific discipline.
