[Academic] FW: Unacceptable level of participation in the Publication Challenge

[Erling Riis]

Dear All,
I received this from the Dean. I am afraid I think he is right. High-profile publications are essential for us and crucial for maintaining any kind of respectable standing in the next REF. None of us can take it for granted that we have what it takes already, so I would encourage you to sign up for this Publication Challenge.
Erling

===============================================================
Professor Erling Riis
Head of Department
Department of Physics,               tel: 0141-5483490
Strathclyde University,
John Anderson Building,             e-mail: e.riis at strath.ac.uk<mailto:e.riis at strath.ac.uk>
Glasgow, G4 0NG
UK


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From: David Littlejohn
Sent: 12 January 2016 18:29
To: Erling Riis; John Murphy; Iain Stewart; Ian Ruthven; Robin Plevin
Cc: Neil Ghani; Robert Martin
Subject: Unacceptable level of participation in the Publication Challenge
Importance: High

Dear HoDs

I have been told that only 6 colleagues from the Science departments have signed up for the Publication Challenge. This is equally disappointing and surprising, especially given the importance of research output quality in REF and the need to produce high quality papers that will attract significant citation levels

The Challenge was publicised in a positive supportive manner as the following extract indicates:

Do you want to - or need to - improve the quality of your publications? Do you want increase your chances of getting your research published in a top journal? Doing so boosts your scientific reputation, accelerates the uptake of your results, increases the chances of grant funding, and helps you meet the threshold for the next REF. We have collected the best tips, strategies and secrets from across the Faculty and rolled them into a Publication Challenge. The Challenge will consist of a series of workshops led by senior Strathclyde academics with excellent publication records and - at the end of the course - attendees will have a peer reviewed draft paper which is the best it can be!

I expected to see such a high level of demand that we would be running multiple sessions. Clearly the current position is not acceptable, so I need you to identify colleagues whom you would have expected to take advantage of the series of workshops. These might be individuals who are not producing sufficient numbers of high quality papers and in particular those who have not yet 3* or 4* papers for REF. In particular, I think you should be expecting all ECR lecturers to attend the Publication Challenge, but there will be mid-career staff who also need a boost and benefit from the support provided.

The signup url is at

https://bookings.strath.ac.uk/courseDetails.asp?course=pubc

You may already have in mind actions to track participation of your colleagues in the Publication Challenge, however with Engineering registering 3 times the number of participant for something that has been driven by Science colleagues, you will understand my concerns.

Regards

David


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