Qualis is a journal classification system created by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in Brazil. It provides a ranking list of scientific journals in which Brazilian researchers publish their scientific work. This system is managed by advisory committees in each 49 knowledge evaluation areas, following criteria previously defined by each area. It establishes 8 different categories in a decreasing scale: A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and C. Some areas take into account bibliometric impact information in their journal evaluation, while other areas use a set of formal aspects considered to be relevant for scientific journals.
This research aims to verify, in different knowledge areas, how much the Qualis categories relate to international journal indicators such as: SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), Impact Factor and Google Scholar h-index. For that, scientific production of graduate programs in Brazil in 8 different evaluation areas was analyzed in period of 10 years (from 2007 to 2016).
Results from this work may be of interest to the Brazilian scientific community since the Qualis system has been used in the country to evaluate graduate programs, and also to assess researchers' scientific production. These evaluations are often linked to the distribution of financial resources, both for institutions and for individuals (grants, promotions in academic career, and others). Results may also be of interest to the international scientific community as they will bring to light relevant information regarding the development of alternative ranking systems for the evaluation of scientific production.
