Regulations:

1. The Excellence Reward for Scientific Publication is granted based on the Regulations for Disbursement of the Excellence Allowance for Saudi faculty members and their equivalents in universities, as attached to the letter of His Excellency the Minister of Education No. (9285) dated 27 / 5 / 1431 AH, provided that the papers are published in journals indexed in ISI and ranked among the journals in the field(s) according to the databases of Web of Science (Web of Science-Clarivate Analysis).
2. The Excellence Allowance is granted only to Saudi faculty members and those of equivalent status.
3. The Excellence Reward is disbursed to eligible recipients for two years (starting from the first salary after the disbursement approval date), unless a decision is issued to suspend it or the applicant (the faculty member) commits a violation that requires suspension of payment or recovery of the full reward or both.
4. The maximum limit of the reward is (100%) of the first step of the basic salary of the faculty member or their equivalent.
5. Submitting a new application is not allowed if the active disbursement percentage is 100%.
6. If the researcher submits a request that would cause them to exceed the maximum limit (100%), the applicant will be required to either agree to waive the remaining percentage or cancel the request.
7. The applicant must attach the full scientific paper in the Published Version, in its final form as it appeared in the journal, including all formatting and official publication information, and not the Accepted Manuscript or the Preprint version. Partial submissions or modified versions are not accepted.
8. The scientific publication may be individual or joint, provided it appears in a scientific journal indexed in the relevant field of specialization.
9. The main (primary) affiliation of the researcher in the published paper and in the Web of Science report (Web of Science) must be King Abdulaziz University. The affiliation must explicitly include the university name, city, and country as follows, without abbreviations or additions:

    

   Campus	Official Affiliation
   King Abdulaziz University (Main Campus)	King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
   King Abdulaziz University (University Hospital)	King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
   King Abdulaziz University (Rabigh Branch)	King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh, Saudi Arabia

10. The corresponding author with the journal (Corresponding Author) must be one of the authors of the scientific paper.
11. The Web of Science Core Collection database is adopted as the sole reference for issuing the scientific paper report.
12. The journal must have a Journal Citation Report (JCR) entry in the Web of Science database (Web of Science) for the year preceding the publication year; otherwise, it will not be accepted.
13. The only accepted citation indexes for journals in which the research is published are the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), based on the relevant regulations issued by the Ministry of Education.
14. Applications for the Excellence Reward for Scientific Publication are accepted only for papers that are published and indexed in the Web of Science (Web of Science), with status Published and with a publication date shown in the paper report on the Web of Science website (Web of Science).
15. Applications are not accepted for papers whose status is Early Access in the paper report on the Web of Science website (Web of Science).
16. The Excellence Reward is granted to papers classified as Original Research (Article) as shown in the paper report on the Web of Science site (Web of Science).
17. The Excellence Reward is also granted to papers classified as Review as shown in the paper report on the Web of Science site (Web of Science), provided they fall under Category “A” or Category “B” only, and provided that the scientific publication is in 2024 or later.
18. The reward category and percentage are determined based on the publication type, using the arithmetic mean of the ratio between the journal’s category rank and the total number of categories according to the journal’s JCR report for the year preceding publication, and not based on the quartile in which the journal falls. See the table below:

     

    Paper Type	Journal Category	Reward Percentage	Mean
    Article / Review	A	30%	0.0 ≤ A ≤ 0.1
    Article / Review	B	20%	0.1 < A ≤ 0.2
    Article	C	10%	A > 0.2
    Article	Local	30%	A > 0.0

19. The percentage is divided equally among all authors of the published paper, regardless of their academic rank, authorship role, or contribution percentage. It is paid to the eligible recipient in accordance with item (1).
20. A journal is classified as “Local” if its country of origin in the Journal Citation Report within the Web of Science database (Web of Science) is Saudi Arabia, and if it has a ranking among the journals in its field(s) in the year preceding publication, and it falls within the citation indexes mentioned in item 13.
21. The Excellence Reward is granted in the case of repeated publication in the same journal in the same publication year as follows:

     

    Paper Type	Journal Category	Maximum Number of Single-Author Papers per Researcher	Maximum Number of Co-Authored Papers per Researcher	Total Maximum Number of Papers per Researcher
    Article / Review	A	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
    Article / Review	B	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
    Article	C	1	2	2
    Article	Local	1	1	1

22. The Excellence Reward for Scientific Publication is granted only for scientific papers published in the most recent calendar year and the three preceding calendar years (maximum).
23. The department chair must verify that the attachment is the full published version of the scientific paper in its final form as it appeared in the journal, including all formatting and official publication information, and that it falls within the researcher’s field of specialization.
24. The department chair must verify that the researcher’s name in the scientific paper matches the researcher’s name in the university services system.
25. The college dean must verify that the attachment is the full published version of the scientific paper in its final form as it appeared in the journal, including all formatting and official publication information.
26. The college dean must verify that the researcher’s name in the scientific paper matches the researcher’s name in the university services system.
27. If the applicant does not comply with the regulations and declaration, the academic department and/or the college dean has the right to return the request to the researcher for modification or to reject the request.
28. The relevant department council and college council must recommend eligibility in accordance with these regulations.
29. The applicant has the right to inquire about the status of the request submitted to the Deanship, or any previously executed request, within a period not exceeding one year from the date the request was received by the Deanship.
30. The Deanship of Scientific Research or the Standing Committee for the Excellence Reward has the right to add to, change, or amend these regulations in a manner that does not conflict with applicable laws.