Credible and accessible publishing
Published research results must be credible and accessible. You need to think strategically about communicating and disseminating your research. The university monitors and evaluates academic publications by its researchers in order to be able to provide them with effective publishing strategies.
Credible dissemination of research
To make research results public by publishing is an obligation by law for researchers. Traditionally, academic publishing has referred to academic peer-reviewed articles and books, but in our digital era it is possible to also make other valuable results of the research process available.
What, how and when you wish to publish depends on what constitutes a contribution to the knowledge in your research field and what is valued there. The number of published articles has traditionally been highly valued in merit-based recruitments, but future merit systems may be based on more types of publications. The reform of research assessment and merit systems is an ongoing process, e.g. through CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) including an agreement which has been signed by Stockholm University.
Examples of other academic publications than articles and books are research data, so called "preprints", code, method descriptions, surveys, reports, conference presentations and educational resources. These research contributions can be published under an open license (such as Creative Commons, CC BY) via appropriate platforms or repositories, in order to make them as open and FAIR as possible.
The FAIR principles
You should publish through outlets (publishers, journals or repositories) that help make your publication as FAIR as possible. FAIR is an acronym for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Three aspects are central:
- detailed, standardised metadata describing the publication and making it easy to find,
- a unique, constant identifier for the publication (e.g. a digital object identifier, DOI) that makes it possible to track, and link to, the publication,
- a clearly specified license describing how the publication can be used and how attribution should be done (e.g. a Creative Commons CC-BY-licens).
This makes it easier for machines as well as humans to find, download, understand, use and reuse the material. Having published research results in accordance wih the FAIR principles also simplifies the process of archiving.
Choose a credible research outlet
The custom on how to reach relevant target groups varies between research fields. There are also differences regarding what is valued in the merit systems. It is often meriting to co-author with other researchers and to publish in English, for greater international impact. When you publish articles and books you should pay extra attention to:
- whether the outlet offers peer-review,
- the publication outlet's relevance in your field of research,
- the possibility to publish open access.
Registering publications
Information about publication at the university must be registered in DiVA. Publication data is regularly analysed using bibliometrics. In some cases information from DiVA can be used as a basis for decisions on grants and merits. This underlines the importance of correct and updated information about your publications. The misspelling of a name or an organisation can result in your publication not being accredited to you.
Using persistent identifiers
To make the information about publications as correct as possible you are encouraged to use persistent identifiers as much as possible. There are a number of different persistent identifiers:
- Publications – Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- Researchers – Open Researcher and Contributor ID(ORCID)
- Research organisations – Research Organization Registry (ROR) for Stockholm University: https://ror.org/05f0yaq80
- Department – copy the name of your department from this list to avoid misspellings: engelska / svenska
Persistent identifiers are unbreakable links (as compared to URL:s). They enable effective linking and higher quality of data that is easy to trace for you as well as your research organisation.
What is a persistent identifier? - Wikipedia
Register your ORCID
It is a good idea to register an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) to add to the information about your publication, making it easier to distinguish you from others. If you keep your ORCID profile updated you can export the information and easily transfer the information to other systems or to create your academic CV.
If you apply for a grant through Prisma it is mandatory to provide an ORCID. You can log in to ORCID using your SU-id.
Register an ORCID – your own persistent identifier.
Publishing with an ISBN
Publications such as books and reports must have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). It is a unique number that identifies your book in systems and catalogues. Each format (printed book, e-book, pdf) must have its own ISBN and all numbers need to be included on the colophon page of the book.
Read more about ISBN on National Library website
The ISBN should be one that indicates that it is a publication from Stockholm University. If your department doesn't have a list, the University Library can provide one for you. Contact publish@su.se to receive an ISBN. State the following: Author, title, series, year and format for publication.
Link your research
Publishing and linking your research can result in more readers and citations. For example, you should link to data supporting an article, using a DOI or another persistent identifier, as well as from the data to the article.
The citation advantage of linking publications to research data