Description
IntroductionAs of November 2021, the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) has reviewed and updated the criteria and procedures for academic promotions. Among a lot of other criteria, the way research impact was evaluated also changed. It is in this evaluation of research impact that the Central Medical Library (CMB) secured a role. For adjunct or full professor positions the staff of the Dean of Research will ask the CMB to create a so called ‘factsheet’. In this factsheet the impact of publications is measured in a field weighted way. Also, percentage of publications in top citation percentiles, open access and altmetrics will be analyzed. During such an analysis a division is made between all publications and the publications where the candidate had a prominent author position. This ‘factsheet’ is then added to the dossier and is always shared with the candidate.
The old way to evaluate publication was to look at in which journals it had been published. The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was a key indicator. The CMB started in 2019 with doing research impact analysis that stepped away from these traditional methods. Article level metrics became the norm, and the focus was less on numbers, but more on narratives. By promoting and doing these analyses in the UMCG between 2019 and 2021 the library became part of the discussion around research evaluation, and it eventually gave the library a role within the ‘academic career policy’ of the UMCG.
Aims and objectives
Further develop a fair way to measure the impact of research based on article-level-metrics. In the end, research assessment should be a fair one, where every researcher, or a group can be evaluated by the quality of their work.
Methods used
To create the ‘factsheets’ multiple systems are used, but at the heart is the Current Research Information System (CRIS). The library manages this CRIS and works towards filling the CRIS with all publications of the UMCG, but researchers have their own responsibility in making sure that their publications are all registered in the system. The tools used now are our CRIS (Pure), Scopus, SciVal and for now Excel.
A validated set of the researcher’s publications is imported into SciVal. For each of the publications the metrics are collected by SciVal and are then exported to Excel. An Excel template is created to easily create the analysis and show the information that is requested. This information is then put into a report.
Results
For the library the results have been very positive. Researchers know that the library will make a ‘factsheet’ and thus often already request one before they try for a promotion or just out of curiosity. Next to factsheets for the ‘academic career policy’ the library also creates impact analyses for departments, groups or just interested researchers. Over the last couple of years, the workload has increased, but so has the visibility of the library within the institution.
Discussion
The initial reactions have been positive, but have also been met with questions. Before researchers knew that if they published in a prestigious journal that it was enough, but now a range of metrics are used to determine impact. Development and discussion on both the method and content of the analysis is ongoing and is done in collaboration with the Research Office, departments and individual researchers.
| Period | 14-Jun-2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) 2023: Radical Positive Change Agents |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Trondheim, NorwayShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |