Characterizing College-level Research Strengths Using Data from a Research Information Management System

Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries recently launched a research information management (RIM) system, Scholars@TAMU, which contains TAMU faculty scholarly information (e.g., their academic backgrounds, publications, teaching and grant activities). The system is based on a member-supported, open-source, semantic-web software (i.e., VIVO) that enables the discovery of research and scholarly activities across disciplines by providing standard research profiles. The system may serve as a university s authoritative record of the faculty scholarship. This can be an institution-level/enterprise system to support university leadership developing their future directions.

New and important needs for the characterization of scholarly impact and institutional research that characterizes the research enterprise were identified during conversations with the campus community on the design of Scholars@TAMU. We addressing these needs through innovative library services, where these services are conceptualized as complementary innovations around a central IT system, collection or program. Complementary service elements are designed to work together with the central system so the service is more useful, impactful, and scalable.

Innovative, Integrated Library Service Central System or Service: Scholars@TAMU (http://scholars.library.tamu.edu) is a researcher profile system that enables the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines built using a robust, open-source, semantic-web application connected to a database of the products of faculty work.
Complementary Service: Discovery of faculty expertise and research specialties to enhance faculty reputation, research collaborations, and societal awareness of Texas A&M s research programs. Complementary Service: Professional development program for faculty seeking promotion or tenure. This program includes both workshops and consultations guiding faculty in the use of scholarly and societal impact metrics. Complementary Service: Institutional research on the nature, practice and impact of Texas A&M s research that support the information needs, planning and decision-making responsibilities of the university administration. Complementary Service: Research evaluation to support program reviews and accreditation.

After the system is deployed, the library had an increasing number of requests to help a college, center, institute, or department understand their research strength, impact, and productivity. Some of colleges or departments requested a help them successfully complete their annual program review or program accreditation. Rich database of the RIM system can generate different types of reports, and the library currently explores to develop a standardized template for understanding institutional research.

This poster presents preliminary work including goals, processes, and tools and services, as well as some of visualizations of the Scholars@TAMU data as examples. The visualizations have been produced to characterize research strengths, productivity, impact, and research & publishing practices.