The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS) was created and developed by European researchers under the coordination of the Standing Committee for the Humanities (SCH) of the European Science Foundation (ESF). The ERIH lists, which initially covered only humanities disciplines, were first published by ESF in 2008, while revised lists were made available in 2011-2012. In 2014, responsibility for the maintenance and operation of ERIH was transferred to the NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data. The reference index at NSD is called ERIH PLUS in order to indicate that it has been extended to include the social sciences.
The lists published by the ESF SCH in 2011-2012 form the basis for the ERIH PLUS list. As the approval procedures of the ERIH PLUS database are different from ESF procedures (i.e. no peer review by expert panels is currently foreseen), ERIH PLUS does not feature ERIH categories but the database includes all other information accessible via the ESF website.
From 9 July 2014, ERIH PLUS will be open for submissions for inclusion of new journals. To be included in ERIH PLUS, scientific journals in the humanities and social sciences must meet the benchmark standards described here. These standards have been developed jointly by NSD and ESF and are based on the main principles used by the ESF SCH in ERIH and the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers.