New rules for publishing at Tech
Research from Tech may no longer be published by departments or centres as research reports
Based on a current case in the Practice Committee under Aarhus University, the faculty management has decided that the Tech report category "Research Reports" will be abolished. As is stated in an email from Vice-Dean, Ole Hertel, department and center heads, are encouraged to share the information with their employees.
From this day forth new research cannot be published in reports from Tech, including DCA and DCE. Research must be published externally as a peer-reviewed article or as a popular science article in journals.
This also means that it is no longer possible to add to new contracts or collaboration agreements that the research will be published in a DCE or DCA publication.
Following up on criticism
This decision is based on a recommendation from the Practice Committee, which criticized a process involving a research report from the Department of Agroecology.
The committee sided with a former AU-researcher, agreeing that he had a legitimate expectation to be able to publish his research as a research report through DCA.
The report, however, was stopped in its original form by the head of the department on the grounds that it did not meet the desired and necessary standards of DCA advisory reports.
When handling the complaint, the practice committee urged that “rules and procedures for publishing reports from AGRO – via DCA or otherwise – needed to be clarified, made explicit and consistently adhered to in the future.”
The faculty management's decision to abolish research reports has been made as a consequence of the Practice Committee’s comments. However, the decision applies to all of Tech, ensuring uniform guidelines for publication across all departments and centers.
New committee looks into remaining reports
Concurrently, the faculty management has established a committee to review the remaining reporting landscape at Tech.
This is an opportunity to take a cross-cutting look at DCA and DCE and, for example, standardize how publications are issued.
The committee consists of Acting Director of DCA, Anne-Luise Skov Jensen; Director of DCE, Maria Sommer Holtze; Head of Department of Ecoscience, Mikkel Tamstorf; Vice Head of Department of Agroecology, Jørgen Eriksen; and Vice-Dean, Ole Hertel. Advisor Thomas Plesner from the dean’s secretariat serves as the committee's secretary.
From four to three report categories
With the decision to get rid of the "Research Reports" category, there are now three remaining report categories at Tech, including DCA and DCE. They are listed on Tech's employee portal under “Report categories - Employees at Technical Sciences, AU”.
- Advisory Reports
Reports whose purpose is to report on science-based advice and monitoring, carried out at the request of the authorities and other clients. This category includes reports of science-based advice under the Framework Agreement with the ministries. - Advisory Notes
Similar to Advisory Reports, but not published as full reports. Often brief, often with a short deadline. - Communication reports
Dissemination of already published research. To be published in this category, reports must have significant public interest, either for clearly defined target groups or for the general population.
For commissioned research and other projects of an advisory nature to be published under Tech, it will henceforth apply that the project must be done under the entire quality management system's processes, so that the center unit is involved from start to finish in the project. For such projects, DCE or DCA publications can be issued as Advisory Reports and Advisory Notes.
What about ongoing research projects?
According to Vice-Dean, Ole Hertel, not many research reports are published each year.
Research projects already underway that are intended for publication as reports under Tech need to contact their center unit as soon as possible to clarify contractual matters and the further process under the quality management system.
The head of the department and the center director are both allowed to reject the publication of such projects as DCE and DCA publications.