TY - JOUR
T1 - The holy grail of science policy
T2 - Exploring and combining bibliometric tools in search of scientific excellence
AU - Van Leeuwen, Thed N.
AU - Visser, Martijn S.
AU - Moed, Henk F.
AU - Nederhof, Ton J.
AU - Van Raan, Anthony F.J.
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - Evaluation studies of scientific performance conducted during the past years more and more focus on the identification of research of the 'highest quality', 'top' research, or 'scientific excellence'. This shift in focus has lead to the development of new bibliometric methodologies and indicators. Technically, it meant a shift from bibliometric impact scores based on average values such as the average impact of all papers published by some unit to be evaluated towards indicators reflecting the top of the citation distribution, such as the number of 'highly cited' or 'top' articles. In this study we present a comparative analysis of a number of standard and new indicators of research performance or 'scientific excellence', using techniques applied in studies conducted by CWTS in recent years. It will be shown that each type of indicator reflects a particular dimension of the general concept of research performance. Consequently, the application of one single indicator only may provide an incomplete picture of a unit's performance. It is argued that one needs to combine the various types of indicators in order to offer policy makers and evaluators valid and useful assessment tools.
AB - Evaluation studies of scientific performance conducted during the past years more and more focus on the identification of research of the 'highest quality', 'top' research, or 'scientific excellence'. This shift in focus has lead to the development of new bibliometric methodologies and indicators. Technically, it meant a shift from bibliometric impact scores based on average values such as the average impact of all papers published by some unit to be evaluated towards indicators reflecting the top of the citation distribution, such as the number of 'highly cited' or 'top' articles. In this study we present a comparative analysis of a number of standard and new indicators of research performance or 'scientific excellence', using techniques applied in studies conducted by CWTS in recent years. It will be shown that each type of indicator reflects a particular dimension of the general concept of research performance. Consequently, the application of one single indicator only may provide an incomplete picture of a unit's performance. It is argued that one needs to combine the various types of indicators in order to offer policy makers and evaluators valid and useful assessment tools.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4243070730&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1024141819302
DO - 10.1023/A:1024141819302
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:4243070730
SN - 0138-9130
VL - 57
SP - 257
EP - 280
JO - Scientometrics
JF - Scientometrics
IS - 2
ER -