Impact2: Through power of collaboration. How we increased our impact by helping researchers to increase theirs.

Abstract

Strategic planning and delivery of services at the University of Auckland's Libraries and Learning Services (L&LS) is underpinned by institutional collaboration and consultation. L&LS continues to strengthen its specialist research support services with an enhanced focus on strategic partnerships. L&LS is the institutional owner of Research Outputs (Symplectic Elements), the system used by University of Auckland (UoA) researchers to record and manage their research publications and professional activities. Research Outputs is also a key data source for services that support UoA researchers increase their visibility, track and measure their research impact, and generate data for performance reviews. A reference group of senior academic and professional staff, chaired by the University Librarian, is a forum for strategic decision making on best practice use and development of Research Outputs. The UoA external facing university directory and academic profiles use a publication feed from Research Outputs and is one example of L&LS collaborating on an enterprise wide project to increase the visibility of researchers. L&LS actively contribute to several working groups including an initiative to promote ways to enhance academic reputation and profile, and increase citations. One outcome was a marked increase in deposits to the UoA research repository. A research impact publication service was launched by L&LS in 2014. The multi-faceted BiblioInformatics Service, developed with input from strategic partners and stakeholders, offers researchers consultations with librarians on how to track and maximise the impact of their research outputs and is supported by online guides. A self-service platform, drawing on Research Outputs as a data source, provides information such as h-index and top cited publications. To support strategic decision making the service also delivers benchmarking and collaboration reports to Senior Management on research and citation performance.