ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 3 – arts
7.3 Research Quality
The numerical indicators provided for the research area (i.e. the information
corresponding to Form 3: Quantitative summary of activities and academic
reputation) are partial, only information about a limited number of
individuals has been available, and the lacking information is not accessible
at the individual homepages. The lists of publications are not always up to
date. The information at hand is thus somewhat incoherent and partial.
There are obvious differences in the research activity of the various subsections
of the division. Area studies and foreign literature studies stand
out as particularly successful.
Since a very high proportion of publications are books or contributions to
books, a bibliometric emphasis on output in terms of articles in journals
is not adequate.
Productivity: In foreign literatures and area studies the general pattern is
that the professors are highly productive, whereas lecturers publish very
little, in some cases nothing at all. The outputs of some of the professors
are very impressive, Enkvist in Spanish has more than 70 publications,
including 10 books (of which some apparently are the same in Swedish
and Spanish); Schoenhals in Chinese studies has next to 40 publications,
among them a major book in the field; Thormählen in English has 17
publications, among them 3 books; Törnqvist-Plewa in Central- and
Eastern European studies has 22 publications, including a book, and
Larsson in French has 17 publications, including a book.
In comparative literature the pattern is somewhat different. The predominant
– and quite reasonable – level is 9–10 publication, in some cases
including a book or editorship of one or more books. There are exceptions
to this pattern though. The productivity of the professors as a group does
not stand out compared to the most productive lecturers and researchers
– it should be added, though, that there are striking differences in output
among the professors.
In film studies the only professor, Erik Hedling, stand out with an output
of 43 publications, among these the first published monograph on Lindsay
Anderson and several anthologies. The research output among the
lecturers and researchers is very varied and uneven, from the questionable
to the recommendable.
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