Norway deals boost research strategy
The country of Norway has signed two major deals to further its national scholarly communications strategy.
Norway's UNIT (the Directorate for ICT and joint services in higher education and research) has chosen the Web of Science Group as its sole data provider for a new national research evaluation project.
The Web of Science Group, a Clarivate Analytics company, will deliver a new National Infrastructure for Bibliometrics, comprised of bibliometric data from worldwide scientific publications prepared specifically for research, analysis and reporting. The National Infrastructure for Bibliometrics will help Norway further develop its competencies in bibliometrics, allowing academics, institutions and research funders to more easily understand and compare domestic and international research.
Annette Thomas, CEO Web of Science Group said: 'It’s a privilege for the Web of Science Group to play such an important part in Norway's research output evaluation, helping them to streamline, improve quality and ensure access to knowledge. Web of Science continues to lead in world-class research evaluation by providing data for the UK’s REF 2021, the Australian Research Council, and now Norway too.'
The Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) will be the first research institution to benefit from The National Infrastructure for Bibliometrics. The data will be used in NIFU's work for the Research Council.
Sveinung Skule, Director of NIFU said: 'The access to world data will provide completely new opportunities for analysing the results of research in the form of scientific publishing. This is especially important for international comparative studies, comparisons of Norway with other countries, as well as more basic research on scientific publishing. It will allow us to monitor, understand and investigate the effects of research policy measures and instruments.'
Secondly, John Wiley & Sons and UNIT have announced a combined open access and subscription agreement. This three-year agreement will provide 33 Norwegian institutions with continued access to Wiley’s subscription journals and enables their affiliated authors to publish open access articles in Wiley titles.
As part of the agreement, all eligible researchers and students will be automatically identified and notified of the opportunity to publish open access through their institutional connection, at no additional charge. The 33 institutions will also have access to a distinct open access account dashboard for easy administration of their account, quick article approval, and in-depth reporting.
'This partnership will drive us towards a more open research landscape,' said executive vice president of research at Wiley, Judy Verses. 'This collaborative agreement is another example of how critical partnerships are in creating impact for researchers' work, enhancing publishing services for authors and librarians, and the importance of offering sustainable publishing models.'
