Last year's scientific papers collected in new publication

The new publication RÅ 2023 (The English term is Annual Review) brings together all scientific journal articles that have been written by employees at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute over the past year.

The first printed paper edition is already out of print, but the compilation is available digitally in DIVA and via the links below. RÅ stands for “resultatåterkoppling” which means feedback on results in English and Rå23 contains abstracts for all articles published in scientific journals in 2023. There was a total of 79 articles.

“We should be proud of these articles. From a scientific point of view, this is the best thing we do,” says Professor Jan Andersson, who has been responsible for compiling articles through the Swedish Collegium of Sciences together with Biblioteket (the Library) and KOM (the Department of Communication and Media).

“Rå23 is a consequence of an imbalance that I and many others have experienced at VTI (the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute). We (VTI) are keepinga close eye on calls, applications and highlight when approved applications are granted for a long time, but have been deficient in communicating the results. With this publication, we will get better at providing feedback.

The target group for the publication is both internal – Jan Andersson thinks that all VTI employees should read it – and external groups outside VTI. When the publication was distributed at VTI’s booth during the Transportation Forum, there was a lot of interest. Not only researchers but also politicians and civil servants took the opportunity to take their own copy.

But some people may ask, why are only scientific journal articles included? VTI’s researchers do so much more – they produce reports, results, memos, anthologies, and EU reports.

“Wise from experience, I think it’s a good place to start. Ideally, publishing scientific journal articles is just the first step. I would be delighted if there was a publication dedicated to EU reports and anthologies that feature contributions from VTI employees. We are a little better at reporting what we write about, but of course, we can make a compilation of them as well.”

Prior to evaluation, RÅ 2023 will be as broadly distributed as feasible. After the evaluation, a decision will be made as to whether the publication will be republished next year, and if so, what it will cover.

“We will of course continue to work with, and try to get better at providing feedback on the results. But in what form exactly has not yet been decided,” says Jan Andersson. Comments on RÅ 2023 are welcome and instructions can be found in the publication.

Read RÅ 2023: All scientific papers of last year (DIVA) External link.

Text: Mikael Sönne

Translation: CBG