Qualis is a Brazilian official system with the purpose of classifying scientific production. It is maintained by the Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), a government agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Education.
Qualis has the task to classify and evaluate the academic means used on the production of scientific publications of post-graduate programs (such as master theses and doctoral dissertations). The classification itself occurs by a system of grades, per field of evaluation, and depends on the level of circulation (local, national or international) and on the quality of the journal (A, B, or C).
Grades
The classification is annually updated and follows a series of criteria defined by CAPES, such as: number of issues, indexation, number of publishing institutions, impact factor based on JCR, etc. The grades (so called "strata") occur in a 1–8 scale (A1, the highest; A2; B1; B2; B3; B4; B5; C — not listed).