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Research evaluation: is it our business? Librarians in the brave new world of research evaluation

Research evaluation: is it our business? Librarians in the brave new world of research evaluation. Andria McGrath Senior Information Specialist, Research Support, King ’ s College London. What is research evaluation?.

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Research evaluation: is it our business? Librarians in the brave new world of research evaluation

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  1. Research evaluation: is it our business? Librarians in the brave new world of research evaluation Andria McGrath Senior Information Specialist, Research Support, King’s College London

  2. What is research evaluation? • External evaluation – in the UK the RAE now REF3 major elements of the RAE: • publication outputs, • grant income awarded, • research students • Vital importance – link to income • Benchmarking – Rankings • Internal evaluation

  3. The players in institutions • Research Office • PVC Research • Research group/dept heads • Administrators • Librarians – publications expertise • Institutional repository managers

  4. Evolving interest • REF events at King’s 2008 -2010 • 1st event – Beyond the RAE – representatives from 75 universities – 1/3 librarians • Survey – • biggest challenges – verifying publication lists • Biggest concerns for REF – bibliometrics – data sources, subject differences, skilling up to cope • http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/support/ref

  5. Events Nov 08 and June 09 • Focus on bibliometrics – pilots • Pre-event survey before Nov event: • Only about half of institutions had a centralized publications data collection system • One or two mentioned Symplectic • One mentioned something called Pure

  6. Data collection systems • Some – only concerned with collecting RAE pubs • Others – aimed at collecting all publication info • Wider uses – profile pages / internal evaluation • Some creating internal ‘home grown’ systems • Separate systems for 3 RAE data elements • Integrated system, taking feeds from other systems (eg Research Gateway at King’s)

  7. REF focus changed • Bibliometrics element toned down • Impact (4th King’s REF event in June 2010) • Not publication impact – practical impacts of research • Research leaders had seen the light on • data collection systems • bibliometrics

  8. CRIS Current Research Information SystemsAlready common in mainland Europe

  9. CERIF • Common European Research Information Format • A standard – uses XML • Objects or entities with attributes eg project, person, organizational unit; • Relationships – 'linking relations’ • Rich semantics – roles and time

  10. R4R project - Ready for REF • JISC project – King’s and Southampton • CERIF4REF XML schema created • Plugins for Eprints, Dspace and Fedora • Transfer data to REF collection system • Research admins, IR managers, systems staff and librarians involved • http://r4r.cerch.kcl.ac.uk/

  11. Librarians and CRIS systems • St Andrews experience • If research office led – get in on the ground floor • Librarians have plenty of expertise to offer

  12. Which librarians? • Senior managers • Subject/liaison librarians • Research support librarians • Instutional repository managers • Information resources depts. – subs • Enquiries staff

  13. Strategic directions for libraries • RLUK strategic themes • 1st – redefining the research library model • New services / new roles for staff • Value of libraries for research and researchers (RIN/RLUK report) • RLUK – Reskilling for Research (forthcoming) • Research support librarians

  14. Some new areas for librariansassociated with research evaluation • CRIS systems & CERIF • New ways of interacting with bibliographic / citation databases • APIs – for publication or citation data • Discovering other institutional systems eg grants DBs / student systems that feed into CRISs • Bibliometrics principles and new products

  15. New opportunities • Showing our value • To administrators / research office • To academics and senior research leaders • To Graduate School • Opportunities to advocate Open access

  16. Bibliometrics – the new buzz word Awareness growing • By librarians • By research leaders in institutions • By academics

  17. Librarians – natural synergy • Citation databases • Citation reports • Training offered – eg by Thomson Reuters • Training points up limitations of basic measures • Normalizing of measures crucial but difficult without specialised products

  18. By research leaders • A few initiates who understand the issues leading the way • Percentiles tables in Essential Science Indicators used for evaluations • H-index being used by some • At least one institution has employed a bibliometrician

  19. Academics Some beginning to take an interest • Discovering: • ResearcherID • Citation reports in citation databases • Google Scholar • Graduates – training opportunity – “Making an impact”

  20. Holy grail • Research information system • Dashboard for research managers – eg for grant information • Captures data with minimum effort • Integrated with bibliometrics • For internal & external purposes – evaluation and promotional

  21. Is it our business?

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