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Read this newsletter "cover to cover" or cherry-pick what interests you by clicking the links.
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For nine years, I have had the privilege of being the library director at Karlstad University. But all good things must come to an end, as Geoffrey Chaucer once said. Within a couple of weeks, I will resign from my position, and Jörg Pareigis will succeed me.
Looking back, there a few things that I would like to highlight as significant achievements from the library:
- Open access to scientific literature: In 2014, there were no read and publish deals with publishers, and the number of articles published open access from Karlstad university researchers was very low. Today, the library has so called transformative agreements with 15 academic publishers and for no less than approximately 11,000 academic journals the publishing fees are pre-paid by the library. Open access publishing at Karlstad University is no longer an exception, it is mainstream.
- Keeping up with access to databases: despite raised prices, a tight budget, and currency fluctuations, we have been able to not only maintain but also actually increase the number of accessible databases, journal packages, and e-book collections, which are all necessary for our researchers’ daily information provision.
- We have conducted a number of surveys and investigations, in order to improve our service offering to faculty, coverings areas such as:
- Co-authorship
- Speech-to-text transcription
- Qualitative data analysis
- Questionable publishers
- We have delivered a large and growing number of high-quality systematic literature reviews to researchers and PhD students.
- Our podcast (Forskningspodden) has now published more than 100 episodes, where we talk to researchers from Karlstad University who recently presented their dissertation.
Looking forward, there is no doubt that the AI technology has the potential to fundamentally change the way research is conducted and of course also the operations of a research library. It will be exciting to follow the development from the sideline!
These nine years together with the wonderful staff of the library have been a truly great experience, and I am sure that the services from the library will continue to improve so that you as researchers can do what you do best – research!
Wishing you all a great summer!
Jakob Harnesk
Images: Adobe Stock and KAU
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We are KAU library
Jörg Pareigis is our soon-to-be new library director at Karlstad University library, and we seized the opportunity to introduce him to you!
With a keen interest in customer behaviour and customer experience, Jörg started his research journey at KAU by joining CTF (Service Research Centre) as a researcher and as an Assistant Professor in Business Administration. His research focused on the active role of the customer as a co-producer and the role of the physical environment.
He has also been involved in teaching at the Karlstad Business School at all levels from first year to postgraduate courses and was leader for the International Business program. His career at KAU has involved developing open online graduate courses for professionals in the private and public sector and working as an educational developer. Now he is our go-to when it comes to the latest in Open Education and AI as the head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (UPE).
When asked what he is looking forward to the most in his new role as library director of Karlstad University Library, Jörg replies:
It is such an honour to take on this task and I am especially looking forward to working with all researchers in order to figure out how the library can serve them best in their work.
Jörg Pareigis
Images: KAU bildbank
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PhD course: Information retrieval and publishing strategies
If you are a PhD student you are welcome to register for the course Information retrieval and publishing support. This autumn, the course will be given in Swedish and targets students in the beginning of their research career.
The course provides useful knowledge for your entire research career, and gives you a chance to meet and discuss with PhD students from other disciplines. It covers topics such as information seeking for research purposes, reference management, copyright issues, open access and publishing strategies.
Sign up now, admission is limited! For more information about the course and how to sign up click here.
Any questions? Please contact: forskarstod@kau.se
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The library is closing for the summer
Over the summer, maintenance of the wooden floors in the library will be carried out. This means the library will be closed for visitors from week 25 to week 31. Do you need to borrow a book during the summer? Contact the library: biblioteket@kau.se
Our lending periods are also longer during the summer. Borrowing a book from the library on June 19th or later will guarantee a loan period until August 21st. Keep track of your loans on My Loans.
Our opening hours during the summer:
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Check-up on DiVA
Time for a check of your publications in DiVA?
Hopefully, the end of the semester is a time when things calm down a bit for you. While organizing your desk(top) to have everything in order for the autumn, we would like to encourage you to do a DiVA check.
As we import publications with KAU affiliations from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus on a weekly basis, most of your publications are hopefully already properly registered in DiVA. Nevertheless, conference papers, reports, books and book chapters are often not indexed by WoS and Scopus, and therefore we are reliant on your information to keep DiVA up to date.
So, please double-check that all your publications are available.
For questions and support, please contact: publiceringsstod@kau.se.
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KAU to sign up for ORCID membership
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a non-profit organization aiming to provide all researchers with unique ID’s. ORCID is free to use for you as researcher, and getting the ID can help you keep track of your research publications and avoid misidentification with other researchers.
Universities and other research bodies that want to use ORCID data in and between their local systems need to sign a membership with ORCID. As of now, 10 Swedish universities have signed such memberships, and Karlstad University is currently working towards being included in the list of members. The member admission process will hopefully be finalized soon, letting our researchers restore the option to connect their ORCID to their KAU research profile while granting KAU access to additional ORCID services.
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DMP online - create a data management plan for your research project
A data management plan (DMP) is a document where information about the data management in a research project is collected. The plan covers all phases of the project, from planning and collection, production or generation of data, to analysis, publication, and archiving. Ideally, the DMP can serve as a collective memory which helps you, research partners and other stakeholders of your research to understand how data has been managed, curated and governed throughout its life cycle.
If you would like to, or are required to, create a DMP for your project, KAU offers the tool DMPonline with templates for most common funders covering the main aspects of data management. The tool provides you with written guidance, and the chance to get additional support from the KAU research data group by using the tool’s “Request feedback” function.
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NVivo + Amberscript = True
At the library we frequently receive questions from researchers about software that can help with transcribing, organizing and analyzing qualitative data. The university has a campus license for NVivo, and now it’s possible to download the newest version NVivo 14! Please note that KAU does not have access to NVivo Collaboration Cloud or NVivo Transcription, which are add-on modules.
With regard to transcription software, the library and KAU IT department will soon subscribe to Amberscript (through Sunet). When the agreement with Sunet is finalized, it will be announced on Inslaget.
Image: Adobe Stock
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Forskningspodden - a podcast focusing on research at KAU
Have you listened to our podcast yet? In our research podcast “Forskningspodden” we talk to researchers who have recently defended their licentiate or doctoral thesis. The podcast is a chance for you as a researcher to listen to other researchers talking about their work and also a chance to reach an audience in a more relaxed setting. 
At the moment, we have 104 episodes published.
You can listen to our podcast here.
We invite all new licentiates and doctorates to be a guest on Forskningspodden. Eager to know more?
Contact Magnus Åberg.
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We are here to make life easier for you
Just a reminder that the library is here to make your research journey easier for you. We are happy to help you with information retrieval, reference management, publishing issues and making your research visible.
Read more about the library’s services for researchers.
Do you have any questions or want to book an appointment? Contact us: forskarstod@kau.se
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The transformation of research assessment
According to a recently published Nature editorial, the Australian Research Council (ARC) has been advised by an independent expert review to scrap its current scoring system of university-based research. The system, which has been in effect since 2010, uses citation metrics as its primary indicator for most science and engineering disciplines, while peer review is used for humanities, social sciences, computing and mathematics. The expert review explicitly urges the ARC to not solely use metrics when replacing the current system as “metrics can be biased or inherently flawed in the absence of expert review and interpretation” ( Sheil, Dodds, & Hutchinson, 2023, p. 57).
The recommendation by the review to not rely heavily on metrics for research evaluation aligns with a range of international moves to decrease the (over-)emphasis on metrics such as journal impact factor and h-index. Over the last ten years, initiatives such as DORA (2012), the Leiden Manifesto (2015), the HongKong principles (2019), and the SCOPE Framework (2021) argue for a more responsible use of metrics in research evaluation, advocating for broader, more transparent, fair and effective ways of evaluating research.
At a European level, in January 2022 more than 350 organizations invested in research came together to start the process to draft an agreement on reforming research assessment in Europe. The agreement called CoARA – The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, was published in July 2022 and so far it has more than 500 signatories, of which ca 20 are by Swedish organizations. The agreement stresses that assessment should be based “primarily on qualitative judgement, for which peer-review is central, supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators.” ( CoARA, 2023)
According to the closing remark of the Nature editorial “Evaluation has the power to shape research culture for good and ill. It needs to be done well.” Whether CoARA will work for the good remains to be seen.
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Forskarfredag – Researchers’ Friday
Researchers’ Friday is part of European Researchers’ Night, an event arranged twice a year by the Swedish non-profit organization Vetenskap & Allmänhet, VA (Public & Science). Schools, companies and non-profit organizations can borrow researchers for group talks, experiments, shows, science cafés and more.
Are you interested in spreading your research in this forum? Visit Forskarfredag and apply to Borrow a Researcher here.
Read more about Vetenskap & Allmänhet here.
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Thank you...
...for reading this letter all the way through. We hope you enjoyed it.
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