What does FWO require?

FWO requires all information on research results to be submitted to the FRIS research portal if these results originate from a project or fellowship that is at least partially funded with FWO resources. At Ghent University, fulfilling this requirement is supported through GISMO and Biblio. From these institutional systems, the required data will then flow through to FRIS.

The FWO requires the submission of information on three types of research results:

1) research infrastructure

2) datasets

3) peer-reviewed journal articles

The following publication types need to be reported:

• Peer-reviewed journal articles (FWO-A1)
• Non-peer-reviewed journal articles (FWO-A2)
• Preprints (FWO-A3)
• Books (author or co-author (FWO-B1)
• Book chapters (FWO-B2)
• Books (editor) (FWO-B3)
• Articles published in proceedings of scientific conferences (FWO-C1)
• Doctoral dissertations (FWO-C2)
• Book reviews (FWO-C4)
• Reports (FWO-C5)

The reporting requirements for peer-reviewed journal articles resulting from research funded at least partly by FWO funds were introduced in 2022. In 2027, FWO extends this requirement to the reporting of the above-mentioned publication types.

The FWO asks its researchers to update the information in the institution's own systems and repositories on a regular basis. When a fellow leaves the receiving institution, responsibility for registration of the new research results, of which the former fellow is an author, is transferred to the promoter.

More information on the FWO requirement

Compliance with the reporting requirements

Since June 2024, FWO only takes into account published, peer-reviewed journal articles that are registered in FRIS. Since 2025, FWO adopts a more stringent reporting policy in which compliance to the reporting requirements is monitored more closely. Infringements result in an insufficient rating with potential impact on future funding.

In practice: what to do in GISMO and Biblio?

In this tip, we give guidance on the registration of publications and datasets in Biblio. The registration of research infrastructure is described in the research tip GISMO: register and manage research infrastructure.

During the registration of publications and datasets, researchers should not only enter the required information, but also make the links (or validate the links) between their research results and related research projects/fellowships.

All projects funded by the FWO at Ghent University are registered centrally in GISMO. This includes fellowships. The promotor/fellow receives an email from the research administration (team Vlaams-Federaal) that the project and the grant have been created, with a direct link to the project form in GISMO. 

What to do in GISMO:

• Check the project form and complete any missing information. Required fields: Dutch title and abstract, English title and abstract, discipline code level 4, minimum one Dutch and one English keyword. > more on the project form
• Check your personal profile and complete any missing information.  Required fields: ORCID linked to your Ghent University account, a discipline code level 4. > more on the personal profile
• Check whether the personal profile of other Ghent University researchers linked to your project is complete. Ask them to complete the required information if needed. > more on the personal profile

If these files are not complete, the project will not be shown in Research Explorer, and will not be forwarded to FRIS. > more on how GISMO feeds into FRIS

What to do in Biblio:

• Register your publications and datasets with the required information. Do not forget the open access requirement for peer-reviewed journal articles. > more about the registration of publications and datasets.
• Link your publications and datasets to the FWO project. > More about linking research output to a project in Biblio
• GISMO forwards the publication information, including the project link, to FRIS. FRIS identifies the publications that have undergone peer review.
• For datasets, a link between a dataset and a publication that is linked to a project is sufficient. A direct link of the dataset to the project is also allowed. > More about linking datasets to publications in Biblio

Information flow to FRIS

From Biblio, information about your research output, including the project links, is forwarded to GISMO. GISMO combines this data with information from the project form and the personal profiles and delivers this to FRIS. Subsequently, FWO retrieves the research output from FRIS based on the project code.

For the reporting of research output, FWO offers an online reporting form. On the FWO portal, you need to initiate the import of publications and datasets from FRIS to the project report yourself. Make sure you do this in a timely manner, so that there is enough time to verify the report and rectify mistakes or complete missing information. Often, you will need to register additional information in Biblio and/or GISMO or you will need to contact the helpdesk of these systems (biblio@ugent.be, gismo@ugent.be). 

Whether your report is partially or completely based on information in FRIS (and  the Ghent University systems Biblio and GISMO) depends on the start date of your project or fellowship and the date of initiation of your report on the FWO portal. If you do not see a button to import publications and/or datasets into the report, you will have to enter your research output either partially or completely manually.

The following timelines apply:

• Reports initiated before January 2024: all research output needs to be reported manually.
• Reports initiated between January 2024 and January 2027: published, peer-reviewed journal articles are retrieved from FRIS and added to the FWO report.
• Reports initiated as of January 2027: in addition to published, peer-reviewed journal articles, also other publication types and datasets will be retrieved from FRIS and added to the FWO report.

Other research output types than those mentioned above as well as research infrastructure need to be reported in the old way, namely by manually adding the information for the research output and infrastructure to the report. Registration of research infrastructure in GISMO is required, nonetheless.

Where can you get help?

After reading this tip and the research tip FWO: Why is the publication and dataset list of my FWO report not complete?, do you have questions or would like to make changes for which you do not have permission, contact our helpdesks:

• biblio@ugent.be for registration of publications and modifications in Biblio.
• rdm.support@ugent.be for questions about research data and registration of datasets is Biblio.
• gismo@ugent.be for modifications to GISMO.

Contact the helpdesk early so your research output is included correctly in your FWO report before the reporting deadline and you avoid an insufficient evaluation of your report.