New Academic Merit Bonus System

The Tier 3 bonus is awarded for publications:

In journals from the List of Eligible Journals (Список А);

Oral/spotlight reports included in the main programme of a conference included in the List of the Eligible CS Conferences. Poster presentations may be considered if they were displayed at an A*-level CS Conference (as per the CORE rankings), were included in the conference’s main programme and were peer-reviewed following the same standard review procedures in place for oral presentations;

Monographs or textbooks issued by publishers in accordance with the List of Eligible Publishers.

A decision to give the Tier 3 bonus shall be made based on a selection of a candidate’s publications over the last two years posted on his/her personal webpage on the portal and verified no later than June 15 of the current year.

The amount of Tier 3 bonus does not depend on the type of publications for which it has been awarded.

The bonus is awarded for one year.

Initially, the ‘long bonus’ is awarded to those with a publication every year, as well as to those who have publications over four out of five years on the condition that one of them is a monograph issued by a publisher on the List of Eligible Publishers.

The remaining bonuses are then distributed among those who have publications over four out of five years, within the budget for Academic Merit Bonuses for the current year.

When publications are considered for the ‘long bonus’, the relevant lists of journals and publishers are used rather than retrospective lists and quartiles. Situations might arise when a staff member had previously received a Tier 3 bonus for a publication, but due to changes in the lists, it would be considered for a ‘long bonus’. Another situation might be when a staff member had previously received a Tier 3 bonus for a publication, but due to changes in the lists, it wouldn’t be considered for a ‘long bonus’.

The bonus is awarded for five years.

If a staff member wants to move to another bonus, a higher one, then, the ‘long bonus’ expires early based on the awardee’s application. In this case, publications made during the five-year period for which it has been awarded cannot be considered to award a new ‘long bonus’.

The amount of the ‘long bonus’ is calculated as the arithmetic mean of Tier 3 bonuses for five years. In the event a staff member receives a bonus exceeding the maximum amount in a particular year, then the amount of this bonus is taken as 1.5V1 for calculating the arithmetic mean.

The minimum amount of the ‘long bonus’ at the moment it is awarded equals half of the amount of a Tier 3 bonus in the current year.

The base amount of the bonus shall be determined for each publication (V1); this figure is confirmed every year by the Rector.

Step 1. Calculating the estimated amount of the bonus for each publication.

If the number of co-authors of an article is five or more persons, the baseline amount of the bonus for publication (V1) shall be divided by 5: V2 = V1/5. If the number of authors of an article is less than five, the baseline bonus for publication (V1) shall be maintained: V2 = V1. If the applicant is the primary author or designated as a corresponding author, the Bonus Committee may choose not to divide the bonus by 5 (V2 = V1). The amount of bonus V2 shall be divided by the number of co-authors who are HSE University staff members with a status satisfying the criteria listed in p. 5.4 of these Regulations and multiplied by 1.25 (V3).

Step 2. Calculating the estimated amount of the bonus for all publications in one year.

The total amount of all bonuses for the articles from the previous year is calculated until the total amount exceeds the baseline bonus amount for one publication.

The amount of the difference is multiplied by the coefficient of 0.2 and added to the baseline amount.

The resulting amount T cannot exceed 1.5 of the baseline bonus amount (1.5V1).

Step 3. Amount of the bonus for the year.

• T1 – estimated amount of the bonus for all publications in the last year
• T2 – estimated amount of the bonus for all publications for the year before last
• The bonus for the next year is set at an amount that is equivalent to the maximum of two values:

1). T1

2). 0.5·(T1+T2)

This means that the bonus cannot be lower than either the estimated amount of the bonus for the last year’s publications or half of the estimated amount of the bonus for the year before last.

Sample Tier 3 bonus calculations

List of HSE University staff members who were awarded the bonus for academic work (Tier 1) in 2019

List of HSE University staff members who were awarded the bonus for academic success and contributions to HSE University’s academic reputation (Tier 2) in 2019/2021

List of HSE University staff members who were awarded the bonus for a publication in an international peer-reviewed academic journal (Tier 3) in 2019

List of HSE University staff members who were awarded the Rector’s bonus in 2019