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Welcome to the third issue of the newsletter, this eternal year 2020.
Although we are passing through the darkest time of the year, we hope that you are staying safe and warm, and that you can find time and light to enjoy the beautiful colours of autumn.
Another light in the dark was the recently announced Nobel prize laureates for 2020. While science is universal, nation states seem to be oddly important when it comes to the winners, at least in the Swedish media. In some outlets, the fact that Prof. Emanuelle Charpentier, the co-winner of the Chemistry prize (together with Prof. Jennifer A. Doudna), had spent research time at Umeå University seemed to be more important than the huge discovery she was awarded for, the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. National pride aside, the Nobel prize week was a welcome beacon of inspiration in these gloomy times.
While work at KaU is continuously marked by physical distance, we are grateful that technology is helping us to bridge some of that distance. From our perspective, it is very important that we can maintain a dialogue with you. We need this to be able to keep you updated on novelties in, for example, information retrieval and publishing, but also so that we can listen to your needs and wishes.
So, please remember that we are still there for you. We are happy to Zoom-meet you individually, or by guesting your virtual research group and department meetings.
Autumn greetings!
//Magnus Åberg, Newsletter editor
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- ... that this semester 12 PhD students are taking our course Information Retrieval (3 ECTS) via Zoom. In the course so far, they have been improving their knowledge and skills in information retrieval, reference management, publishing strategies, open access, bibliometrics, and copyright. During the weeks ahead, they will be working on their course assignment, which involves undertaking literature searches for their research projects and putting together a publishing strategy that will guide them during their doctoral studies and beyond. Are you interested in taking the course, or thinking about recommending it to a colleague? Next time, the course will be given in Swedish, and it starts on 16 February 2021. To sign up, send an email to the course instructor, Åsa Möller.
- … that as our e-book supplier Dawson Books has gone out of business, most of the titles carried by Dawson can now be retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. Titles from Springer/Palgrave can be retrieved from Springer Link. To learn more about how to find, read and download our e-books, click here.
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As you are probably aware, academic journal publishers often charge researchers a lot of money to publish research results open access. However, through agreements negotiated between the national library consortium Bibsam and all major publishers, KaU researchers can publish open access free of charge, or at a discounted price.
Today, Karlstad University has agreements with 15 different publishers. To make it easier for you to get quick information on what terms apply for a specific journal, we have launched the service Scifree.
Scifree is a database of all the journals included in the 15 agreements. When searching for a journal, you will retrieve information on what subsidies are available for the open access fee charged by that journal. You will also retrieve information on what open access license options are available for a specific journal. Through the service, you will also be guided to information on what you need to do in practical terms to benefit from the agreements.
Questions and more information: publiceringsstod@kau.se
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Kriterium is a platform for review and dissemination of scientific books. Kriterium was started in 2015 as a collaboration between the universities in Gothenburg, Lund and Uppsala. As of now, nine universities are supporting the initiative, Karlstad University being one of them.
Not all research output fits into the format of journal articles. The basic idea of Kriterium is to help sustain the book as a way to disseminate research results, by providing a quality assessment (peer review) of the research. All books are published open access.
Are you thinking about publishing your research findings as a book, Kriterium might be something for you! Books that earn the Kriterium quality seal are indexed in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, and they are publicly available for anyone to read for free online (great for your students and for the visibility of your research!).
Want to know more?
- Kriterium contact person at KaU: Ph. D. Annika Jonsson (ext: 2117) at the Department of Social and Psychological Studies.
- KaU representative of Kriterium board: Magnus Åberg (ext. 1089), Karlstad University Library
- Kriterium.se
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In our previous newsletter we invited you to a seminar this autumn to learn about and discuss open data. We want to inform you that this event will still take place, but it has been postponed to Thursday, 25 February, 2021.
We have invited open data experts, both researchers and other specialists, to Karlstad University to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of open data. If you want to participate, please save the date! More information to follow.
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Due to the Corona pandemic, organizers of conferences are struggling. You may have experienced sessions or entire conferences being postponed or cancelled. So what does this mean for the paper you wrote for the event but did not get an opportunity to present? Perhaps you had anticipated the paper gaining visibility through the conference proceeding, but instead it is still on your desktop, for your eyes only?
For us as DiVA administrators, your paper still counts! We follow the American Psychological Association’s recommendations for handling cancelled conferences (APA7 style guide). This means that:
- If the conference is held as planned, but your particular session is cancelled: Your accepted paper can still be registered in DiVA (we will just add a record note that the session was cancelled).
- If the entire conference is cancelled: Your accepted paper can still be registered in DiVA (we will just add a record note of the cancellation).
- BUT, if the conference is postponed: We kindly ask you to withhold from registering in DiVA, until the conference has been held.
If you have questions concerning this, please contact: Publiceringsstöd
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* Sorry for this very Swedish paraphrase of pop culture icon Ulf Lundell's statement after cancelling a performance in 1991. He said (my translation): "A cancelled gig is also a gig, as it evokes feelings of regret, irritability, and bitterness. And the cancelled concerts are the only ones people talk about, so they have to mean something."
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Meet a Researcher ("Möt en forskare") is an open seminar series where staff, students, and the general public can listen to KaU scholars presenting interesting research findings.
The next seminar this semester will be held on Thursday 8 December (12.00-12.45) by Dr. Hedvig Mårdh, senior lecturer in the Department of Political, Historical, Religious and Cultural Studies.
The title of Dr. Mårdhs presentation is Att iscensätta det förflutna (To stage the past). Hedvig Mårdh’s research centers on stagings of cultural heritage in different media, e.g. furniture design, museum exhibitions, public art and silent film.
The seminar will be held in Swedish via Zoom.
Please note that we are planning to host a seminar in November too. The details of that seminar and Zoom-link to Dr. Mårdh's seminar will be posted here: https://www.kau.se/bibliotek/studiestod/studieverkstaden/aktiviteter/mot-en-forskare
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Peer review is often a frustrating process for authors, reviewers, and editors. It is time-consuming and takes a lot of effort, effort which is often not recognized or, worse, might turn out to be for nothing if the paper ends up being rejected or assessed as not suitable for the journal in question. Then, after authors have resubmitted to another journal, the entire process starts over. New reviewers are assigned and it will often take several more months before a new decision can be made on whether the paper should be published or not.
To make the process more efficient, Cell Press has introduced an initiative they call ’community review’. Instead of being reviewed for one journal at a time, you could be reviewed for several outlets at the same time. Read more about it in this Scholarly Kitchen interview with Deborah Sweet, Vice President of Editorial at Cell Press.
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While we in Sweden, including Karlstad University, have two different open access agreements with the publisher Springer Nature, covering more than 2,000 journals, none of the 30 plus Nature journals are included in either agreement.
The prestigious Nature imprint, which is editorially independent of Springer Nature, announced in April that they will offer open access publishing routes. And now, a first deal has been struck with the German Max Planck Digital Library, as reported by Nature in this news article. The agreement is effected in January 2021. Then 120 German HEIs can benefit from the deal should they choose to opt in. Also in January, Nature and most other Springer Nature hybrid journals will be rebranded as 'transformative journals', which means they will advocate more actively for open access.
The agreement between Springer Nature and Max Planck will not be cheap. The price per article is 9,500 Euro, which is roughly three times the price of other Springer Nature journals. Critical voices have been raised over the price tag, but Nature argues that high fees are warranted by the high rejection rate (circa 60% of all manuscripts are rejected).
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As scientific discovery is, for the most part, a result of collaborative work - sometimes between tens, hundreds or even thousands of researchers - it is not an easy task for the Nobel prize committee to nominate laureates. The rules dictate that no more than three researchers can share the prize, a limit ill-adapted to the reality of how research is conducted.
In this Nature article, Prof. Michael Houghton, one of the winners of this year’s Prize in Medicine (for identifying the hepatitis C virus) says being awarded the prize was ”sweet”, but that it left a bitter taste as ”they don’t acknowledge the whole team directly”.
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