Publishing more in prestigious journals

Researchers at NHH have published a record number of research papers in journals with very high prestige, according to a new report.

04.04.2014 - Øyvind Torvund

The figures from the Database for Statistics on Higher Education (DBH) show an increase in publication points at Level 2, which is for journals of particularly high quality. In 2012 the figure was 63.3, while for 2013 it is 87.2.

A long process

"Getting articles published in the most reputable journals is a challenging process. So we're very pleased with these new figures, which show we have strongly motivated and persevering researchers," said Helge Thorbjørnsen, Vice-rector for Research.

The number of publication points at Level 2 per senior researcher is well above the average for the rest of the sector.

"From the first work on an article to its publication in a top journal can take up to three to five years. Because the process is so extensive and demanding, the productivity of individual researchers will vary from year to year. But our focus will always be on quality rather than quantity, and in this sense this tendency is in line with our strategy," added Thorbjørnsen.

NHH also saw an increase in total publication points: from 156.5 in 2012 to 188.3 in 2013.

More focused research

To further raise the quality of research, efforts are now being made to make the research at NHH more focused.

"We must have the courage to make priorities, and to achieve good research we need strong research teams. Closer international cooperation is also required, and we need to get better at nurturing our researchers and research teams who publish in top international journals. This extra focusing is necessary for us to publish regularly in leading journals, but it is also important in terms of attracting international students and top staff," said Thorbjørnsen.

Excellent research at FSK

The evaluation of the Department of Professional and Intercultural Communication (FSK) was also recently completed. The Department was given the grade of "excellent" in the field of corpus linguistics and terminology by the external experts who evaluated the quality of the research.

"I'm impressed by the research at FSK. They're performing well in a number of fields even though they're a small department," said Helge Thorbjørnsen.