What Is the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC)?
The Higher Attestation Commission (Russian: Высшая аттестационная комиссия, abbreviated VAK) is a national government agency in Russia, Ukraine, and several other post-Soviet states that oversees the awarding of advanced academic degrees. Its most well-known function is maintaining the authoritative HAC List — the official register of peer-reviewed scientific publications in which the main results of Candidate of Sciences (kandidat) and Doctor of Sciences (doktor) dissertations must be published.
Understanding the HAC List
The HAC List is not a single static document but a complex, evolving information system built on the normative documents of the Higher Attestation Commission, bibliometric data from eLibrary.ru, and decisions of the commission's expert councils and ranking working groups. Journals included in the list must meet strict criteria, including regular publication of dissertation-relevant results and consistent indexing.
Over the years, the requirements for journals on the HAC List have expanded. Journal issue data has been regularly published in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) via the eLibrary.ru bibliographic database for more than 20 years. In March 2023, editorial offices of HAC List journals were recommended to post 2022 issue data in the Russian Scientific Journals (RSJ) database. In April 2025, by order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, a new requirement was added: journals on the HAC List must also register in the Information System "Metaphora," developed by the Russian Center for Scientific Information, and regularly transfer issue metadata through specially organized interfaces.
How the List Is Organized
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Governing body | Higher Attestation Commission (HAC/VAK) |
| Primary database | eLibrary.ru / Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) |
| Supplementary databases | Russian Scientific Journals (RSJ), "Metaphora" IS |
| Key decision-makers | HAC expert councils and ranking working groups |
| Purpose | Validating venues for dissertation-level publication |
Fields of Study and Practical Use Cases
The HAC List spans virtually every academic discipline — from the physical and mathematical sciences to the humanities — because it serves all fields in which advanced degrees are conferred. Researchers consult the list when selecting where to publish dissertation findings, universities use it to verify faculty publication records, and editorial boards use it to benchmark their indexing and metadata practices. Because the list is updated through expert review, it functions as both a quality filter and a compliance checklist for scholarly publishing infrastructure.
Thinvent Industrial Computers for Research and Academic IT
Thinvent manufactures industrial computers, mini PCs, thin clients, and all-in-one PCs that are well suited to the computing needs of research institutions, university laboratories, and academic publishing infrastructure. Thinvent's IPC3 industrial PC, for example, pairs an Intel® Core™ i3-1215U processor (6 cores, up to 4.4 GHz, 10 MB cache) with 16GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB SSD storage, and can be configured with Windows 11 Professional, Windows 11 IoT Value, DOS, or Thinux™ Embedded Linux, plus optional Quad DB9 serial ports for instrument connectivity. For laboratories running bibliometric databases, digitization workflows, or long-running data processing, Thinvent's fanless, dust-tolerant designs deliver dependable, always-on operation.
