Impact Factors Are Still Widely Used in Academic Evaluations
Survey finds that 40% of research-intensive universities mention the controversial metric in review documents - despite efforts to dampen its influence.
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Survey finds that 40% of research-intensive universities mention the controversial metric in review documents - despite efforts to dampen its influence.
The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was originally designed to aid libraries in deciding which journals to index and purchase for their collections. Over the past few decades, however, it has become a relied upon metric used to evaluate research articles based on journal rank. Surveyed faculty often report feeling pressure to publish in journals with high JIFs and mention reliance on the JIF as one problem with current academic evaluation systems.
By forming a pool of funding applicants who have minimal qualification levels and then selecting randomly within that pool, funding agencies could avoid biases, disagreement and other limitations of peer review.
Paper provides new evidence on gender bias in teaching evaluations. Despite the fact that neither students’ grades nor self-study hours are affected by the instructor’s gender, it was found that women receive systematically lower teaching evaluations than their male colleagues.
Der Nationalfonds ist der wichtigste Förderer hiesiger Forschung.
The 2010 reform of the Italian university system introduced the National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) as a requirement for applying to permanent professor positions. Since the CVs of the 59149 candidates and the results of their assessments have been made publicly available, the ASN constitutes an opportunity to perform analyses about a nation-wide evaluation process.
Academic hiring and promotion committees and funding bodies often use publication lists as a shortcut to assessing the quality of applications. In order to avoid bias towards prestigious titles, plain language statements should become a standard feature of academic assessment.
EUA is organising a series of workshops raising awareness and fostering discussion on research assessment reform. The 2019 edition will focus on research evaluation for the purpose of recruitment and career progression of researchers.
Clarivate Analytics' Institute for Scientific Information Launches Global Research Report titled Profiles Not Metrics.
Quantitative performance ratings are ubiquitous in modern organizations — from businesses to universities — yet there is substantialevidence of bias against women in suchratings. This study examines how gender inequalities in evaluations dependon the design of the tools used to judge merit.
Saying it wants to "again become a place where talent feels valued and nurtured," Ghent University overhauls its system for faculty evaluation to de-emphasize quantitative metrics and annual progress reports. Professors will be asked about their goals and what they are proud of.
CWTS announces the launch of the new course called "Responsible Metrics for Research Evaluation".
Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, has acquired Science-Metrix Inc., a research evaluation firm that provides science research evaluation and analytics to assess science and technology activities
A study evaluating two aspects of the selection process of the top-ranked applicants to the EMBO Long-Term Fellowship program in 2007.
Slides from a talk given to the general assembly of Science Europe in Brussels on 22 Nov 2018. Gives an overview of the problems of over-metricised research evaluation and how this might be tackled, in part through initiatives driven by DORA, and how they are linked with drives such as Plan S to promote open science. Shared under a CC-BY-SA opinion (though Figshare doesn't seem to allow me to select that option from their drop-down menu).
Competitive funding once helped novel ideas get off the ground, but now funding 'excellence' is hampering new research, says Dutch institute