The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan has approved updated Regulations on the conferral of academic titles.
The key change concerns the requirements for publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. From now on:
- When applying for the academic title of Associate Professor (Docent), at least two articles must be published in international peer-reviewed journals (ranked in the 1st–3rd quartiles of the Journal Citation Reports or indexed in Scopus with a CiteScore at or above the 35th percentile in the relevant scientific field). For the social sciences and humanities, articles indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, and Social Sciences Citation Index are also recognized. In such publications, the applicant must appear as either the first author or corresponding author;
- When applying for the title of Professor, a similar requirement applies to three articles published in international peer-reviewed journals (ranked Q1–Q2 in JCR or indexed in Scopus with a CiteScore at or above the 50th percentile). Here as well, the applicant must be the first author or corresponding author.
These amendments are aimed at strengthening the quality and ensuring the individual contribution of Kazakhstani scholars to the international scientific community.
