Libraries and the Research Culture Lens at the Universities of Glasgow and Leeds

The universities of Glasgow and Leeds have publicly committed to implementing a positive research culture through Research Culture Statements, institutional strategies and implementation plans. This presentation will discuss the role of the library in developing and supporting a positive research culture and how it impacts on the library’s services. We will discuss the: level of library engagement in developing the statement impact on and alignment with library services research culture and scholarly communications research culture and open research role of bibliometrics in supporting a positive research culture how the library can play a part in reward and recognition The implementation of a positive research culture provides an opportunity for libraries to partner, support and to lead through its staff expertise and resources. University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow launched its Statement on Research Culture in 2019 and is a core component of its Research Strategy (2020-25). The statement includes a range of themes including Career Development, Research Recognition, Open Research which intersect with support from the Library. More specifically this includes, for example support around the use of responsible metrics pilot work around the CASRAI CRediT taxonomy support for open research through repositories and services for publications and research data support for institutional research dashboards and KPIs The Library works in partnership both with individual academics but also with other University teams, most recently exemplified by our work in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) exercise. University of Leeds The five broad themes of the University of Leeds’ Research Culture Statement are: Personal development, reward and recognition Open research and impact Equality, diversity and inclusion in research Responsible research and innovation A collegiate and supportive environment A library representative is a member of the Research Culture Group and co-leads two sub-groups, those for Responsible Research Metrics and Open Research. The lens of research culture has meant a more strategic focus for the library on its associated services: bibliometrics, open access, open data, literature searching, and research integrity. It has led to engaging with other institutional partners in new ways, for example: Human Resources staff who work in the school and faculties, to provide training and guidance on the role of research metrics in individuals careers, through hiring and promotion. Working in partnership Strategy and Planning and Business Intelligence colleagues on school and faculty benchmarking. Focusing on the research culture and the benefits of open research within our support for scholarly communications. These and other examples will be explored in the presentation. Beyond the UK Looking beyond the UK, we will share findings from a survey of colleagues across the LIBER Emerging Leadership Programme 2019 to capture an indication of research culture and library engagement across LIBER libraries