VAK (VAK-list journals): what it is
Updated: Author: Alina Kanametova
VAK: definition
Key answer
What the officer assesses. The authorship criterion is checked in two steps: first, whether the article is scholarly (per the Policy Manual it reports on original research, is written by an expert, is usually peer reviewed and has footnotes or a bibliography), then whether the outlet qualifies. A VAK-list journal often meets that bar: inclusion means peer review, an editorial board with doctors of science in each specialty and indexing in RSCI. But officers do not know this system, and you will have to explain it right in the petition.
How to explain VAK to an officer. The working wording from the community: the journal is on the list of peer-reviewed scholarly outlets approved by the state attestation body, in which the main results of dissertations must be published. The hierarchy for a petition is simple: Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed weigh far more than VAK, while RSCI and eLibrary are a good supplement (each publication has an EDN identifier, journal pages can be saved as PDF) but not the foundation.
What to attach to each article. The ISSN, the editorial board (the main sign of peer review), the published peer-review policy, a screenshot of indexing in scholarly databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, RSCI) with the page address visible, the DOI, the submission, acceptance and publication dates, a full translation of non-English pages with a separate certificate for each document. A statement that "the journal is leading" with no metric attached weighs nothing.
Traps. The most common objection under the criterion is a demand to prove the "major" scale of the outlet (circulation, audience) even for a peer-reviewed journal: in a community review of 107 cases it appeared in about 40; answer with scholarly metrics, not traffic analytics. Articles that all came out right before filing in journals that publish within days are read by officers as preparation for the criterion, and they doubt the peer review was real; editorial columns, posts and material outside your narrow field do not count.
How many and how to choose. There is no formal minimum: in the chats five or six publications are filed most often, eight to ten give a margin, and five articles in indexed journals weigh more than twenty unindexed ones. Publication timelines vary a lot - ask the editorial office early; be careful with fast paid publications and added-on co-authorship: officers assess your actual contribution, and a junk outlet weakens the whole package. The catalog of outlets with indexing and quartiles is in the journals section.
How it relates to O-1, EB-1A and NIW. Publications close the authorship criterion for O-1A (3 of 8) and EB-1A (3 of 10), where over 1,242 AAO decisions it is counted in 76% of the cases that claim it - the second most passable criterion. But at the second step (final merits) the mere fact of articles weighs little: you need citations and signs that others relied on your work. For NIW publications are not a formal requirement but support for prong 2 in research profiles.
VAK: the official source
VAK: common questions
- Will USCIS count an article in a VAK journal?
- Not for the status itself: the VAK list is not in the USCIS rules. Per the Policy Manual (volume 6, part F, chapter 2, as of Oct 2, 2026, read Oct 11, 2026) the officer checks two things: whether the article is scholarly - reports original research, is written by a researcher or expert, is usually peer reviewed, has footnotes or a bibliography - and whether the outlet is a professional or major publication, judged by its audience and circulation relative to others in the field. A VAK-journal article counts if the petition shows this with evidence about the journal; there is no guarantee.
- Are any journals in the uscis.love catalog indexed in Scopus?
- No. On Oct 11, 2026 we matched the 129 catalog journals that list an ISSN against the Scopus source list for September 2026 (49,104 titles, the Elsevier file), the list of titles accepted into Scopus and the list of discontinued titles: zero matches. The standing of such a journal has to be shown in the petition by other means - the editorial board, the peer-review policy, RSCI indexing and the citations of your articles.
- How do I check whether a journal is on the VAK list?
- VAK under the Ministry of Science publishes the list on the vak.gisnauka.ru portal, section «Recenziruemye izdaniya» (the latest version is as of Sep 15, 2026). The second way is the journal card on eLIBRARY.RU: it has a «Perechen VAK RF» line with the answer and the category; the journals in the uscis.love catalog were checked against it.
- What do the K1, K2 and K3 categories mean?
- VAK splits the journals on the list into three categories - K1, K2 and K3 (VAK information letter of Dec 6, 2022 No. 02-1198; the final 2023 distribution was published on vak.gisnauka.ru on Mar 1, 2024). On the eLIBRARY.RU card the category sits next to the «Perechen VAK RF» line.
- Are Scopus and Web of Science journals on the list?
- Russian journals in international citation databases are deemed included in the list under item 5 of the list rules (Ministry of Science order of May 31, 2023 No. 534); VAK publishes their list as a separate notice on vak.gisnauka.ru.
- How much does a VAK-journal article cost?
- Per the uscis.love catalog (checked Oct 2, 2026): the VAK status was verified for 36 journals, 7 of them are on the list. Where a price is published: 10-15 EUR per 1,500 characters plus 2 EUR per figure or table at three journals sharing one terms page (free for authors with a degree and over 1,000 citations), and 8,000 RUB per publication in «Vestnik Akademii VAK» per the publisher price list. The others either give no price on the site or the page does not open.
VAK: what to do - tools
VAK: read next
VAK: documents and templates from the library
VAK: from community discussions
«He writes that the number of citations says nothing, you have to compare with others in the field. We opened the relevant resources - SciVal, OpenAlex, Google Scholar, made screenshots of percentiles (dated, naturally, after the petition), and attached them.»
Yulia · from public community chats
«Petition structure: table of contents; an autobiography with references to the attachments (mine is 90 pages); a table of which criteria I'm satisfying (all except my own exhibition and box office receipts); and then all the attachments in order with translations.»
community member · from public community chats
«I'm an architect and I wrote a book, got all the numbers needed to have it listed in libraries and bookstores. All the illustrations in it are my works, and they also take part in exhibitions in my city. I started wondering whether I can close the authorship criterion by having a book that I'm the author of.»
Olga · from public community chats
Personal opinions of community members from public discussions, not legal advice.
VAK: related terms
A reference definition, not legal advice. Requirements and procedures depend on your case - verify on uscis.gov.
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