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

Panel 4 – Languages / Philosophy
published also suggest need for analysis and concern: 6, 12, 17, 14, 12, 7.
The number of conference papers is around 120 for the five-year period,
the number of book chapters a reasonable 180. On the average, every
researcher produced some two publications a year. The curves for external
funding of all types distressingly point downwards.
As stated in the self-evaluation report, SOL has four topical research
groups or more loose networks: grammar, language acquisition, semantics,
cognitive linguistics – the presentation of cognitive linguistics is sketchy.
This is somewhat counterbalanced by a distressing decrease in the number
and amount of funding, professors, PhD’s, and doctoral students. Especially
the decrease of new PhD’s over the past five years is alarming: 20, 38,
19, 17, 18, 12. In part, this is related to a general decline in the interest for
language and linguistic studies in several Nordic countries, in part to the
detrimental consequences of nationwide trends and policies.
These averages for productivity (which are overall good) conceal major
differences between individuals and groups, as is evidenced also by the
wide inter-individual disparities in citation rates.
The idea in the self-evaluation to increase local publication channels
(departmental series etc) is not commendable as the university-wide
strategic aim is to attain the highest standard in research and education,
even if there is a need for an outlet for PhD dissertations.
Relevance. The relevance of the work is good or very good both as regards
theory and applications. The latter include e.g. language acquisition,
clinical linguistics, and the voice characteristics of aging people.
Vitality and organisational capacity. The current number of professors
is 18, that of doctoral students 34, i.e. on the average less than two per
professor. This ratio is very favorable indeed but must not go further
down if existential questions about the future of some subjects or individual
positions are to be avoided.
The age and career stage profile of permanent staff in Languages and
Linguistics gives cause for concern. The report draws attention to the
large number of highly competent researchers on soft money, but it is also
clear that most recruitment to permanent positions is internal rather than
external. A major indicator of vitality and organizational capacity is the
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