Information to those who have been awarded research grants
1. When you have been awarded a research grant.
The first thing to do is to write a project description
Start the project description with what is most important, i.e. the aim of the project. Also describe what methods you will use, what data that you might (possibly) use and what time period that you study. Enter the project participants with title and e-mail addresses. Since the description will be published on IFAU’s website when the project approaches its completion (see below), it is good if you write this in as simple a way as possible, so that also people with little knowledge about the subject understand what you will be doing. The project description should be about half an A4-page and be written in Swedish. Please use IFAU’s template for project descriptions and send the project description electronically to ifau@ifau.uu.se.
2. The work process
All projects have an appointed editor
When you have submitted the project description to IFAU, an editor is appointed to be responsible for your project. He/she will get in touch with you, inform you about what you need to know and be your contact person during the work process. Things that are good to know are, for example:
Research reports and Working papers (WP)
If you have a research grant or data from IFAU, the main rule is to always write a research report in Swedish
Normally, the report should not exceed 50 pages in IFAU’s Word template. Research reports in Swedish are published in IFAU’s report series.
The target groups for the Swedish reports are, besides other researchers, in particular decision makers and civil servants, but also media and the general public. This means that the theoretical and methodological sections should, to the largest possible extent, be presented in a way that makes them easily accessible for the major part of the target group. Maths formulas and subject-specific terminology should be avoided. Theory and method can instead be described using a popular scientific approach.
The authors often choose to also write a Working Paper in English
The objective is usually for the results to also be published in an international scientific journal. Working papers are published in IFAU’s WP-series.
The report and the WP from the same project are published simultaneously.
IFAU does not give any policy recommendations in its publications
The objective is for our publications to have a neutral and balanced approach, rather than that they take a clear stand on political questions or in other ways can be considered as direct contributions to the debate. However, we very much want the policy relevance to be clearly emphasized, in particular in the Swedish reports.
Use IFAU’s special templates for reports when you write your IFAU report
We have a Swedish template for reports and an English template for Working Papers. In the instructions, which are adapted to IFAU’s publication templates, you can get practical assistance with different tangible problems. In order to get an idea of what our publications usually look like, we recommend that you take a look at previously published reports and WP:s.
Do you need data?
If you need data, please contact data@ifau.uu.se.
3. The work process
Seminar at IFAU
All projects that have been awarded research grants are to be presented at a seminar at IFAU. This is part of IFAU’s quality check. The research projects that are presented at the seminars are usually ongoing and the seminars mainly serve as a forum for discussion. The seminar is 1 hour and 15 minutes.
You book your seminar time slot, after having consulted the project editor, by sending an e-mail to seminarier@ifau.uu.se. This is done about 3—6 months in advance.
It is not until now, when the project approaches its completion, that the project description will be published on the IFAU website. The communications officer will contact you before the publication and you will then have the possibility to revise your original project description.
Referee procedure
When there exists a written final report (report and/or WP), please send this to the project editor. He/she appoints two ”referees” who are given the task of reading, scrutinizing and commenting on the report in writing. This will take about a month.
The final report is revised based on the comments from the referees
When the comments from the referees have been taken into consideration, the revised version should be sent to the project editor, along with a letter showing how you have incorporated the referees’ views.
The editor will then conduct her/his main reading of the final report and might give some further views.
It varies whether and when IFAU decides to publish a study or not.
IFAU has the right, but is not obliged to, publish all studies that have been funded by our research grants or that have used data from IFAU. We sometimes choose not to publish a study, for example, if we consider that the publication does not fit into the IFAU publication series. Notwithstanding if IFAU publishes the report or not, the author must always give a seminar and submit a final report.
Final manuscript and printing of Swedish report
Press release
Also write a proposal for the press release/message that summarizes the contents of your report. Please send the proposal to the communication’s officer who will be working on the text with you.
The report and the press release will be sent electronically to those who subscribe to IFAU’s research and they will also be published at ifau.se and in social media. In certain cases, there is also a longer summary called “The report in brief” (also in Swedish). The communication’s officer will normally write the first draft of the brief.
4. When the project has been completed
After the publication at IFAU (or a decision from IFAU not to publish) the author has the right to publish the material in other contexts. Exceptions from the principle of first publishing at IFAU should be approved by the editor in charge. The research is thus normally published at IFAU before any other kind of publication.
Data material must be filed in the archives
If the study is based on an analysis of any kind of data material from IFAU, the analysed data is to be filed in the archives after the publication. Analysed data is the data on which the conclusions in the report have been made. Also program code (for example do-files in Stata) is to be filed in the archives. You will find more information in ”Policy for research data” (availble only in Swedish) and ”Instructions for the filing of data in the archives”.
If you create several programs, please document in which order they are to be used and already from the start, make note of what you are doing in the program.
Scientific publications outside IFAU (for example academic journals)
There is no requirement for studies that have been funded by IFAU’s scientific council to be published in other scientific contexts besides IFAU, but if you as an author have the ambition to do so and the analysis is based on data from IFAU, the project might remain open and the filing in the archives might be done later. In the relevant cases, you and the Director General at IFAU will agree on how long to keep the project open and for analysed data to be available.
Other practical information
Research grants are paid out on a quarterly basis
The research grant will be paid out in advance on a quarterly basis to the account that has been stated in the application for research grants. In order for everything to run smoothly, it is important that you inform IFAU about possible additional payment references that are needed in the recipient’s payment system.
Extended time for use of funds
If, during the project period, you find that there will be a need to extend the project period, you can apply for an extended time for use of funds. Please contact ifau@ifau.uu.se in order to discuss the timeline and the conditions for an extension.