According to the current Research Outputs Policy of the South African Department of Higher Education, publications in four categories qualify for subsidy under certain conditions. The categories are articles that are published in a list of approved journals, books, book chapters and conference proceedings published by publishers deemed to meet strict criteria of peer review and good editorial practices.

On this page we present information on the JOURNALS that are currently (2026 publication year) approved by the DHET. This is the same list that applied to journals that had been approved for 2025. The list has since been consolidated and cleaned (removal of duplicates, standardisation of journal spelling variants, inclusion of journal status which indicate where journals have become inactive or been discontinued or delisted during 2025). Only articles that are publised in one of these journals during 2026, may be submitted for subsidy in 2027.

You can use the journal finder to find a specific journal to check whether it is currently on the list of approved journals for subsidy and also what its status is.

You can also download the current list of journals that are eligible for subsidy as an excel file.

As explained below, the list will be updated twice a year at the end of May and at the end of October in order to reflect any changes in the status of journals during 2026, for example where a journal has been delisted or discontinued. Where there are changes to the status of specific journals during the year, CREST will send a communication via DHET to inform universities of such changes. If you have any questions about the list or any specific journal, please send an email enquiry.