Fakta och Frågor och svar om KoN2018

Why conduct the evaluation?

• The ultimate goal of the evaluation is to increase the quality of our research and thereby our possibilities to impact society with science-based knowledge. The KoN2018 Steering Committee (Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellors, University Director and Deputy Director) encourages you to see the evaluation process as an opportunity for strategic discussions: they can stimulate the creative ideas that are the essence of excellent research and high impact. See the letters from the Vice-Chancellor at the KoN website https://internt.slu.se/KoN2018.
• The ambition is that results from KoN2018 will be the basis for strategic decisions at all levels of the university from individual researchers, to Units of assessment (UoAs), to Departments, to Faculties and University leadership.

Will there be funding to UoAs from SLU as a result of the evaluation results?

• There will be no rewards in terms of funding based on the results of the evaluation. There will be less focus on the comparison of evaluation scores and more focus on strategy.

How will the evaluation be organized?

• The steps include organizing SLU research into strong functional strategic groups (UoAs) that will be evaluated by an external panel. The groups will be registered in late September.
• A number of panels will be formed to address SLU’s research topics. Each panel will consist of about 6-8 persons, some with expertise on scientific quality, others with expertise on the impact of research on society. Other panel members will assess the UoAs’ capacity for collaboration.
• Research quality will be assessed by indicators including scientific quality, leadership and scientific environment, and scientific development.
• Impact of research will be assessed by indicators such as of outputs/activities, utility in society.
• The capacity of the UoA to collaborate with society will also be a part of the evaluation process.
• Panels will be decided in October once the UoA are determined. Most likely they will be similar to those of KoN09 from 2009 but there will be some differences that reflect the SLU of today.
• Heads of Departments together with the Faculties’ leadership will suggest candidates to serve on the panels in October. The final decision will be made by the KoN Steering Committee in conjunction with the Vice Chancellors Advisory Group (Deans of the Faculties).
• In late May 2018 the expert reviewers from all panels will convene in Uppsala for interviews with representatives from the UoAs.

Where can we see the results from the KoN09 evaluation from 2009?

• The documentation from the Quality and Impact from 2009 is found at the KoN2018 web page.

Which categories of employees are included in the Units of Assessment (UoA)?

• All persons in the research group that actively contribute to research are to be included. This can include academic, administrative and technical personnel, as well as laboratory and field personnel.

Are there restrictions on who is to be included in the UoA?

• Yes. Only persons who were employed by SLU during the month of May 2017 at least 50% are included.

Why these restrictions? Shouldn’t the KoN2018 evaluation be organized to reflect how research is actually conducted at SLU and allow all researchers regardless of their percent employment at SLU be included?

• The Steering Committee wants the evaluation to be for the persons that have SLU as their main employer. There is, of course, some discontent about the 50% employment restriction. The sentiment being that some UoAs are deprived of the possibility to show its full research program. Many units have highly productive key researchers who are employed less than 50% of their time. However, the Steering Committee see that the influences and contributions by these key people will be seen through the publications that are co-author with members of the UoA. In the self-assessment that each UoA writes there will be opportunity to describe how the unit works with all collaborators.

 What will be the main components of the evaluation?

• KoN2018 will include current status and future aspirations of the UoA. Current status will be seen through scientific output and its impact on society in the most recent years, future aspirations, and the strategies that the UoA has to attain them can be conveyed in the self-assessments. A focal component for this evaluation will include the UoA’s capacity for collaboration. 

Why does the SLU strategy prioritize syntheses and interdisciplinary science when the Units of Assessment are strictly regulated to be within one faculty?

• Successful cross-disciplinary science often has several strong basic-science research groups that work well together. Many times these groups are from different departments, faculties, universities, and not seldom from different countries. That a UoA is assessed in KoN2018 within one faculty does not limit the interdisciplinary of the group. The publication lists and the self-assessment will clearly show these collaborations.

Why are UoAs to meet the requirement of a minimum of ten persons of which seven are to be PhDs?

• This minimum was set in order to encourage researchers to work strategically together. Lessons from the previous KoN in 2009 showed that larger units had more favorable evaluation results. It seems though that this requirement has caused discontent. The most essential criterion in defining the UoAs’ is that they constitute strong functional strategic groups. If this criterion is met they might, in some cases, be smaller than the recommended size.

Can a person who works for more than one department or faculty be evaluated in more than one UoA?

• A person can belong to only one UoA. Detailed information on this found at the KoN2018 website under “Units of Assessment” tab https://internt.slu.se/KoN2018 .

How Are the UoA entered into the KoN2018 system?

• Heads of Department have received a form that they will send into KoN@slu.se by 15 September. The names of all of the UoAs in the Department are to be listed (in Swedish and English) along with the name of the UoA coordinator and the name of the person who will administer the registration of the members of the UoA.     

 How will the members of the UoA be registered in the KoN2018 system?  

• Detailed instructions how to enter data, will be available on the KoN2018 website. You find it on the Registering UoA tab on the KoN2018 website. There you also find thorough instructions and a handbook for this task. Deadline for registration of members of a UoA is 21 September.
• Direct link: https://internt.slu.se/Organisation-och-styrning/KoN2018_sv/registering-units-of-assessment-uoa/

We would like to know how the expert panels are composed before we create the UoAs. Is this possible?

• No, the KoN2018 Steering Committee has decided that the UoAs will be created before the expert panels, so that the panels can be better adapted to the UoAs.

We have a Professor Emeritus and an Adjunct Professor, each with 20 % employment. They make important contributions to our department and are active researchers and publish. Can they be included in the UoA?

• No, the requirement to be included in a UoA is a minimum employment of 50 % at SLU. However, they can be mentioned in the self-assessments and will be made visible through the publications they co-author with members of the unit.

I’m new at SLU and all my publications have an address others than SLU. Should I enter these to SLUpub anyway?

• Yes! Enter your publications - peer reviewed articles from the years 2009 -2016.
• Enter your books, book chapters, reports (peer reviewed, academic), popular science articles, fact sheets from the years 2012 - 2016.
• Please see the instructions under the Bibliometrics tab on the KoN2018 website.
• Direct link: https://internt.slu.se/Organisation-och-styrning/KoN2018_sv/bibliometrics/

I’m uncertain whether my article should be included in KoN2018. Should I enter it to SLUpub anyway?

• Yes, register you publications in SLUpub. If your article is not in SLUpub it will definitely not be included in KoN2018.  The bibliometric analysis will however be done only on peer- reviewed article that are found in the Web of Science database. See https://internt.slu.se/Organisation-och-styrning/KoN2018_sv/bibliometrics/ for details about publications and the bibliometric analyses.

Are abstracts from conferences included in the bibliometric analysis?

• No. But peer-reviewed: articles, books, book chapters, reports and popular science: articles and fact sheets will be counted if they are registered by you in SLUpub.

Are fact sheets included in the bibliometric analysis?

• Yes, if they’re entered into SLUpub. Please see the information from the library on the KoN2018 website.

Is the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) a requirement to enter a publication into SLUpub?

• No, but in case there already is an existing ISBN number, the library appreciates that it’s included in the registration.

How are the number of citations an article gets counted?

• Citations will be counted from Web of Science, so citations that come from journals that are not included in the Web of Science will not be included. However all scientific articles that are registered in SLUpub will be counted in the number of publications.

Can citations in, for example, Google Scholar be included?

• No, the citation analyses are based only upon publications that are found in Web of Science. Of course these articles must be registered by you in SLUpub in order to be included in the analyses.

When will bibliometric data and analyses be available to the UoA?

• Early January 2018 the UoAs will get a set of bibliometric analyses. These are meant to be a help to the UoAs to write their self-assessments which will be due in February 2018. The analyses will also be part of the package of information that the expert reviewers get for each UoA.

Will a UoA be assessed by several expert panels?

• No, each UoA will only be assessed by one panel. Each panel will have persons with expertise in assessing scientific quality, research impact or collaboration with society.

How many panels will there be?

• This is not yet decided. When the UoA members are registered (21 September) the process of determining the panels will begin.

How are the panels determined? How are the UoA assigned to a panel?

• The panels will be determined and the UoA will also be assigned to panels by the Steering Committee in collaboration with the Deans of the Faculties.

Who can suggest reviewers to the expert panels and when is this done?

• Suggestions for expert reviewers will come from the UoAs through the Heads of Department. The Steering Committee together with the Deans of the Faculties will decide the persons who will serve on the panels. This will be decided in October.

Where can I find a list of the panels and UoA that were used in the previous KoN09?

• KoN09 is available on the KoN2018 website, and there you can find the research fields that were used then. In the bottom of the webpage KoN09 you find a pdf of KoN09.

When will the expert panels receive the information about their UoAs (self-assessments, bibliometrics etc.)?

• The expert panels will receive the package of information about their UoAs in March 2018.

When will the expert panels visit SLU?

• The expert panels will visit SLU during the week 28 May – 1 June, 2018. More information about their visit will be provided later on.