Introduction
Discussions about reforming Category “B” professional journals began as early as the spring of 2025. Even then, it was clear that the system needed an update, the requirements were outdated, and the quality of some journals raised serious concerns. The Ministry of Education and Science began drafting new regulations, but the process dragged on—the document underwent lengthy approval, editing, and revisions.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science suspended the acceptance of new journals into the Category “B” List—until the new requirements are officially approved. This meant that publications seeking to be included in the List were simply left in limbo.
The new requirements were not introduced until February 2026: by order No. 56 Effective January 19, the Ministry of Education and Science approved the updated Procedure and granted journals a transition period until June 1, 2026, to prepare and submit applications. We analyzed these requirements in detail and provided forecasts on how many publications will pass the selection process and what researchers can expect—all of this is covered in our previous article: New Requirements for Category B 2026 Professional Publications: What Lies Ahead for Professional Journals.
On June 16, 2026, the Ministry of Education and Science released the results. And the reality turned out to be unexpected.
In this article, we'll take a closer look at:
Background: Why the Ministry of Education and Science Decided to Relaunch the System
The reform of Category “B” did not come out of nowhere. Discussions about the need to update the system had been underway since the spring of 2025—and there were two reasons for this.
First—tabloid magazines. Some of the Category “B” journals had turned into veritable publication mills: they accepted an unlimited number of articles, with virtually no peer review, purely for money. There were not many such journals—yet the Ministry of Education and Science calculated that the publications that ultimately failed to pass the new selection process accounted for over 28% of all “Category B” scientific content in 2025. In other words, nearly a third of all publications appeared in journals of dubious quality. It was precisely this loophole that the Ministry of Education and Science decided to close.
Second is international prestige. The Ministry of Education and Science’s strategic goal is to increase the number of Ukrainian journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. This is a matter of the country’s reputation in the international scientific community. As long as some “specialized” publications continue to churn out articles without any standards, no serious international index will include them. Raising the quality of Category “B” publications means laying the groundwork for integration into the global scientific community.
While developing the new requirements, the Ministry of Education and Science suspended the inclusion of new journals in the List—until the document was approved. The wait was long: the new Procedure was not published until January 19, 2026 (Order No. 56).
Key changes:
- Editorial board composition: at least 9 scholars, including at least 2 from abroad; each member must have publications in Scopus/WoS from the past 5 years;
- A DOI for each article;
- Website requirements: bilingual (Ukrainian + English), HTTPS, a transparent APC policy; and a mandatory policy on the use of artificial intelligence. This is a direct response to Law No. 4742-IX “On Academic Integrity”, which took effect on February 1, 2026;
- Grading system: maximum 30 points, minimum passing score—9 points (30%);
- Limit on volume growth: no more than +50% articles per year compared to the previous year.
Journals were granted a transition period until June 1, 2026, and a window for submitting applications from February through April 2026 via the URIS system.
Predictions vs. Reality: What Came True and What Didn't
In February 2026, immediately after the new Procedure was issued, we analyzed the situation in detail and made predictions—about what would happen to the journals, how many would remain, and what researchers could expect. Now that the Ministry of Education and Science has released the results, we can honestly compare our expectations with reality.
| What Was Forecasted (February 2026) | What Really Happened (June 2026) |
|---|---|
| Only 10–20% publications will be selected | The list includes approximately 1,289 journals—that is, more than 90% of those who submitted applications |
| There will be 140–280 magazines left | There is still ~5–9 times more left |
| 80–90% publications will be removed | Only ~7% were rejected |
| Mass-market magazines (100+ articles per issue) will not be accepted | It has been confirmed that these types of publications accounted for the majority of rejections |
| A potential organizational collapse | The Ministry of Education and Science Has Succeeded: The Commission Completed Its Review by June 10, 2026 |
| Waiting times for publication will increase to 4–12 months | We'll get a clearer picture later—right now, many journals haven't yet started accepting new articles |
| The publication fee will increase to $100–200 per article | There was no sharp spike, but magazines raised their prices by an average of 500–1,000 UAH |
| The next call for applications is in 2029 | It has been confirmed—no new journals will be published until 2029 |
Why did reality turn out to be less harsh?
To be honest, we were preparing for the worst-case scenario—and for good reason. We operate in various markets and have seen a similar reform in Kazakhstan, where the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan allowed only about 150 journals to remain nationwide. The consequences were severe: publication wait times stretched to 6–16 months, costs skyrocketed, and researchers found themselves facing a real shortage. That is precisely why we predicted a similar scenario for Ukraine.
Judging by the results, the Ministry of Education and Science evidently took this experience into account—and deliberately opted for a more lenient approach to the first round of selection. This was the right decision, which helped prevent the system from collapsing.
What Actually Came True
The mass-market “junk” journals have indeed been weeded out. Publications that did not make the List produced more than 28% of all scientific content in Category “B” in 2025—and they accounted for the bulk of the rejections.
The freeze until 2029 has been fully confirmed. No new magazines will be published for at least three years—which means that the market will gradually shrink anyway, just not all at once, but over a longer period of time.
How many journals are left, and in which clusters?
The new list is organized into 14 clusters—thematic groups of academic disciplines. The distribution turned out to be very uneven: some clusters contain more than 200 journals, while others have fewer than 10.
New List of Category "B" for 2026
Number of Journals by Cluster • Order of the Ministry of Education and Science dated June 10, 2026 • a-articles.com
What does this mean in practice?
The options are: education, economics, and the humanities. The first three clusters together account for nearly 700 journals—more than half of the entire list.
Where the choice is limited—the exact and natural sciences. Physics (9 journals), mathematics (19), energy (22), chemistry (23)—researchers here have virtually no alternatives.
Medicine and IT — the middle ground. Issues 93–101—the competition for spots is already noticeable.
Law — surprisingly good. 92 journals for a single field—that's an impressive result.
Who was eliminated and why
Officially, the Ministry of Education and Science does not publish a list of rejections—only a new list of those who were accepted. But a comparison of the old and new lists clearly reveals a pattern: it wasn’t random journals that were dropped, but entire publishing groups that operated under the same model—maximizing the number of articles for profit while minimizing the quality of peer review.
"Scientific Journals" LLC / Scientific Alliance
The largest and most high-profile case. “Scientific Journals” LLC is part of the Scientific Alliance holding company, which includes Publ Science (“Scientific Publications”). It was the actions of this organization that were the key reason why 11 Ukrainian journals were simultaneously removed from Scopus in 2025—an unprecedented blow to the reputation of Ukrainian science. On June 2, 2025, the Ministry of Education and Science sent an official letter No. 1/11385-25, signed by Deputy Minister Denys Kurbatov, addressed all higher education institutions and research institutions, demanding that they terminate their memorandums of understanding with entities exhibiting characteristics of article mills. At that time, 48 higher education institutions, 5 research institutions, and several academies were signatories to such memoranda. The deadline was set for June 10, 2025.
You can view the official letter from the Ministry of Education and Science at by reference.
It was this very scandal that served as one of the key triggers for the development of the new Procedure—Order No. 56. The Ministry of Education and Science decided to systematically, rather than on a case-by-case basis, cut the ground from under such organizations.
The company “Scientific Publications” (Publ Science) is behind one of the most high-profile scandals in Ukrainian academic publishing in 2024—the situation involving the journal *Scientific Herald of Uzhhorod University. Series “Physics.”* The journal was indexed in Scopus with the help of this company, as evidenced by a signed memorandum with Uzhhorod University. The company was actively operating in the Kazakh market and, for years, had been taking orders for publications in Scopus-indexed journals that it simply could not fulfill. At that time, a large number of lawsuits had already been filed against it in Kazakh courts by researchers who had paid for publication but did not receive the promised results.
To settle its obligations to clients and avoid new claims, the company used a journal that technically met the Kazakh authors’ requirements—the top quartile and indexing in Scopus. In July 2024, this physics journal suddenly published over 500 articles by Kazakh scientists from completely different fields that had absolutely nothing to do with physics.
Scopus reacted quickly: the journal was removed from its database. Hundreds of researchers, who had been waiting for years to defend their dissertations, were left without publications and without funding. The articles were deleted, the defenses were canceled, and the company shirked its responsibility.
The new list does not include a single journal from this network in Category "B."
"Scientific Perspectives" Publishing Group
This is probably the most telling example in terms of what exactly the reform was aimed at.
“Scientific Perspectives” was, in fact, the record-holder in terms of the number of publications in Category “B”—most of its journals published 100–200 or more articles in each issue. By comparison, a typical issue of a high-quality international journal contains 10–25 articles. Such a volume makes thorough peer review physically impossible—it was an assembly line, not a scientific journal.
“Scientific Perspectives” served as a co-founder of a number of publications alongside universities and civic organizations—which gave them an academic appearance. But the new requirements included restrictions: no more than +50% articles per year compared to the previous year. For publications that published hundreds of articles each quarter, this meant either a radical change in their business model or removal from the list. They chose to leave. None of the group’s journals appear on the new list.
DKS Center, LLC
Another commercial publisher that specialized in mass-market publications in the fields of economics, management, and law. The model is the same: high throughput, rapid publication, and minimal scholarly editing. They are not included in the new list.
General Pattern
All three publishers operated under the same logic: a scientific journal as a publication service, rather than as a platform for scholarly discussion. The Ministry of Education and Science understood this—which is why the new requirements included not only formal criteria but also structural limits on volume, to make the “factory model” economically unviable. The result: journals that in 2025 produced more than 28% of all scientific content in Category “B” are absent from the new list.
What You Need to Know About the New List
You can check whether a journal is included in the new list on the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science: mon.gov.ua — the updated list for Category “B.”
Here are a few important facts about the structure of the new list:
Validity — from June 1, 2026, through May 31, 2029. In other words, the next selection will take place only three years from now, and no new journals will be added to the list before then.
Open Access — 53% journals operate under the “diamond” open access model: authors pay nothing for publication. Another 95% journals declare free publication for graduate students enrolled in state-funded programs.
International Indexing — 22% journals listed in the index are indexed in DOAJ.
Quality — 27% publications scored 15 or more points out of a maximum of 30. These are the ones that most closely meet the Scopus and WoS standards.
Annual monitoring is not just a formality
A key change in the new Procedure is that inclusion on the list is no longer a lifetime guarantee. The Ministry of Education and Science has introduced annual monitoring of all 1,298 journals. The following may serve as grounds for removal from the list at any time:
- exceeding the permitted increase in the number of articles—by more than 50% per year;
- the editorial board's composition does not meet the requirements;
- the absence or incorrect DOI for articles;
- violation of the declared APC policy;
- violations of the principles of academic integrity: sham peer review, manipulation of dates, and ghostwriting;
- ties to organizations that exhibit characteristics of “article mills”;
- The website does not meet the requirements.
In other words, 1,298 magazines is not the final number. Some of them may be dropped as early as the results of the first monitoring cycle in 2026–2027.
What will happen to the market and the cost of publications?
There are plenty of magazines—but the market has changed
The number 1,298 looks impressive. But there’s an important detail hidden behind it: the publications that were removed from the list accounted for 28% of all scientific content in Category “B.” In other words, nearly a third of the entire market volume disappeared all at once—and that demand hasn’t gone anywhere; it’s simply putting pressure on the remaining journals.
At the same time, the remaining journals are now subject to restrictions: they cannot increase the number of articles by more than 50% compared to last year. In addition, the quality requirements for articles have increased significantly. Articles that previously passed peer review easily in mass-circulation journals will now simply not be accepted.
Prices: Magazines and Services
Publication fees for journals have already risen by an average of 500–1,000 UAH following the update to the list—and this is just the beginning. Journals with scores of 15+ are becoming premium publications—waiting lists are growing, and prices are rising. Journals with lower scores will be forced to invest in quality to remain on the list during monitoring—and these costs will be passed on to authors.
Prices for turnkey publication services and co-authorship will also rise—we forecast an increase of 30% over the next year. The reasons are clear: articles now need to be of significantly higher quality, some journals will be more actively accepting submissions in English, and journal publication fees have increased.
Monitoring is a constant state of uncertainty
1,298 journals—this is not the final number. The Ministry of Education and Science’s annual review means that some publications will be removed based on the results for 2026–2027. First and foremost, journals with low scores (9–12 out of 30) are at risk. For researchers, this poses a real risk: if a journal is removed from the list before the date of their thesis defense, the publication will not be counted.
Freeze Until 2029 — Shortage Postponed, but Not Eliminated
No new journals will be added to the list until at least 2029. At the same time, the number of graduate students and candidates for academic degrees is not decreasing. The math is simple: demand is stable, while supply is limited and gradually shrinking due to monitoring. By 2027–2028, waiting lists for publication in high-quality “B” category journals will become a reality.
What does this mean for researchers right now?
Publishing in reputable journals well in advance of your defense is much wiser than waiting. The market hasn’t overheated yet, the backlog isn’t as long as it will be in a year or two, and prices haven’t reached a new peak yet. Those who act now come out ahead. Those who wait will pay more and have fewer options.
Despite all the changes, the Article Academy continues to provide comprehensive support for publication in “B” category journals. We have adapted our work to the new requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science and know which journals are actually accepting articles right now, which have a strong editorial board, and which have sufficient capacity until the next review.
What's included in the service:
more than 64 destinations
Confidentiality is guaranteed.
Conclusion: The storm has been postponed, but not canceled
In this article, we’ve examined the full picture of the update to the “B” category list—from the background of the reform to the actual figures and implications for the market. We’ve answered the questions currently on the minds of most Ukrainian researchers: how many journals remain and in which fields, which ones were removed and why, what to expect regarding prices and monitoring, and whether it’s worth publishing right now.
The Ministry of Education and Science opted for a soft launch. The inclusion of 1,298 journals instead of the expected 140–280 was a deliberate decision not to disrupt the system all at once, but to reform it gradually. Ukraine has managed to avoid a scenario like Kazakhstan’s, where the publication market collapsed.
But a “soft launch” doesn’t mean “nothing has changed.” Things have changed—and significantly. 28% of the total volume of “Category B” publications disappeared from the market all at once—and this demand is now putting pressure on the remaining publications.
Annual monitoring means that the reform isn’t over—it’s only just begun. Some of the 1,298 journals will be removed based on the results of the 2026–2027 reviews. New publications will not be added to the list until 2029. Prices are rising. So are the quality requirements for articles.
The reform of Category “B” is not a one-time event. It marks the beginning of a new era for Ukrainian science—a slow and difficult one, but a genuine one.
So don't wait—place your order turnkey publication in a Category "B" publication while the market hasn't overheated yet and there's still a real selection of magazines available.
