Peer assessment or promotion by numbers? A comparative study of different measures of researcher performance within the UK Library and Information Science research community

Hirsch’s h-index, Egghe’s g-index, total citation and publication counts, and five proposed new metrics were correlated with one another using Spearman’s Rank Correlation for one hundred randomly selected academics and researchers working in UK Library and Information Science departments. Metrics were compared for individuals of different genders and at institutions awarded different RAE (2001) grades. Individuals’ metrics were rank-correlated against academic ranks and RAE (2001) grades of their employing departments. Metrics calculated using Web of Science and Google Scholar data were compared. Peer- and h-index metric-ranked orders of researchers were rank-correlated. Citation behaviour and attitudes towards peer and citation-based assessment of 263 academics and researchers were investigated by factor analysis of online attitudinal survey responses. h increased curvilinearly with total citation and publication counts, suggesting that h was constrained by the activity in the field preventing individuals producing enough heavily cited publications to increase their h-index scores. Most individuals therefore shared similar h-index scores, making interpersonal comparisons difficult. Total citation counts and Bihui’s a-index scores distinguished between more individuals, though whether they could confidently identify differences between individuals is uncertain. Both databases arbitrarily omitted individuals and publications, systematically biasing citation metrics calculated using them. In contrast to studies of larger fields, no citation metrics correlated with RAE grade, academic rank, or direct peer-assessment, suggesting that citation-based assessment is unsuitable for research fields with relatively little research activity. No gender bias was evident in academic rank, esteem or citedness. At least nine independent factors influence citation behaviour. Mertonian factors dominated. The independence of the factors suggested different individuals have different combinations of non-Mertonian motivations. The overriding meaning of citations was confirmed as signals of relevance and reward. Recommendations for future research include a need to develop simple, robust methods to identify subfields and normalise citations across subfields, to quantify the impact of random bias and to determine whether it varies across subfields, and to study the rate of accumulation of citations and citation distribution changes for individuals (and departments) over time to determine whether career age can be controlled for, in particular

Study on open science: The general state of the play in Open Science principles and practices at European life sciences institutes

Nowadays, open science is a hot topic on all levels and also is one of the priorities of the European Research Area. Components that are commonly associated with open science are open access, open data, open methodology, open source, open peer review, open science policies and citizen science. Open science may a great potential to connect and influence the practices of researchers, funding institutions and the public. In this paper, we evaluate the level of openness based on public surveys at four European life sciences institute

Congress UPV Proceedings of the 21ST International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators

This is the book of proceedings of the 21st Science and Technology Indicators Conference that took place in València (Spain) from 14th to 16th of September 2016. The conference theme for this year, ‘Peripheries, frontiers and beyond’ aimed to study the development and use of Science, Technology and Innovation indicators in spaces that have not been the focus of current indicator development, for example, in the Global South, or the Social Sciences and Humanities. The exploration to the margins and beyond proposed by the theme has brought to the STI Conference an interesting array of new contributors from a variety of fields and geographies. This year’s conference had a record 382 registered participants from 40 different countries, including 23 European, 9 American, 4 Asia-Pacific, 4 Africa and Near East. About 26% of participants came from outside of Europe. There were also many participants (17%) from organisations outside academia including governments (8%), businesses (5%), foundations (2%) and international organisations (2%). This is particularly important in a field that is practice-oriented. The chapters of the proceedings attest to the breadth of issues discussed. Infrastructure, benchmarking and use of innovation indicators, societal impact and mission oriented-research, mobility and careers, social sciences and the humanities, participation and culture, gender, and altmetrics, among others. We hope that the diversity of this Conference has fostered productive dialogues and synergistic ideas and made a contribution, small as it may be, to the development and use of indicators that, being more inclusive, will foster a more inclusive and fair world

Historia 2.0

S\u142owa kluczowe: historia cyfrowa i historia 2.0; humanistyka cyfrowa; media cyfrowe; repozytoria naukowe; otwarta nauka i komunikacja naukow

The development of a culture-based tool to predict team performance

The effect of national culture on the performance of teams is becoming an increasingly important issue in advanced western countries. There are many interlinked reasons for this, including the increasing globalisation of companies and the use of joint ventures for the development of expensive platforms. A further issue relates to the export of complex sociotechnical systems, where a culture clash between designer/manufacturer and user can lead to significant problems. This report describes research work that was carried out to analyse the cultural factors that influence the performance of teams (including researchers, designers, operators and crews), and to determine whether these factors could be captured in a tool to provide assistance to team managers and team builders. The original point of interest related to the development of increasingly complex sociotechnical systems, for example nuclear power stations, oil refineries, offshore oil platforms, hospital systems and large transport aircraft. Answers that might be sought, in particular by the senior managers of global companies, include (1) the best teams (or best national locations) for fundamental research, industrial research & development, product/system improvement and other key activities, and (2) the implications for system performance and, as a result, for system design, of targeting an eastern Asian market, a South-American market, etc. A literature review was carried out of the effects of culture on team performance, of culture measures and tools and of task classifications; in addition, empirical evidence of the validity of measures and tools was sought. Significant evidence was found of the effects of culture on teams and crews, but no national culture-based team performance prediction tools were found. Based on the results of the literature review, Hofstede's original four-dimension cultural framework was selected as the basis for the collection and analysis of empirical data, including the results of studies from the literature and the researcher s own empirical studies. No team or task classification system was found that was suitable for the purposes of linking culture to team performance, so a five-factor task classification was developed, based on the literature review, to form the basis of the initial modelling work. A detailed analysis of results from the literature and from the author s pilot studies revealed additional culture-performance relationships, including those relating to cultural diversity. Three culture-performance models were incorporated into software tools that offered performance prediction capabilities. The first model was primarily a test bed for ideas; the second model incorporated a task/behavioural approach which achieved limited success; the third and final model was evaluated against a range of team and crew performance data before being tested successfully for acceptability by users. The research results included the discovery that the effects of cultural diversity must be sought at the individual cultural dimension level not at the composite level, that the effects of national culture on team performance are consistent and strong enough to be usefully captured in a predictive culture tool and that the relation¬ship between culture and behaviour is moderated by contextual factors

Innovation Ecosystems: A Sustainability Perspective

To be competitive, companies must develop capabilities that allow them to react rapidly to market demands. The innovation methods of the past are not adapted to the turbulence of the modern world. In the last decade, increasing globalization of markets and Industry 4.0 have caused profound changes in the best way to manage the innovation process. This e-book includes a collection of thirteen papers that discuss theoretical approaches, case studies, and surveys focused on issues related to open innovation and its mechanisms

Topics in empirical political economy

This work focuses on misinformation and on voters’ behaviour and addresses questions that have direct implication for policy. Chapter 1: How does media coverage of research articles shape their retraction process? Flawed research can be harmful both within and outside of academia. The media can play an important role in drawing broader attention to research, but may also ensure that research, once retracted, ceases to feature in popular discourse. Yet, there is little evidence on whether media reporting influences the retraction process and authors’ careers. This chapter shows that the salience of a research article at publication amplifies the impact of a later retraction on its citations and the research output of its authors. Chapter 2: What is the relationship between voters’ participation, opinion polls, and the electoral system? A central challenge for social scientists consists in explaining why people vote and what are the consequences of their behaviour. In this chapter I study one of the most contested drivers of voters’ participation which is the role of opinion polls. Voters may use polls information when deciding whether or not to vote, but the relevance of this information may depend on the electoral system. Looking at UK general elections I find evidence that polls predictions interact with the recent local electoral preferences of a constituency, and significantly impact voters’ participation, concentration of vote shares, and local parties’ performances. Chapter 3: What qualifies populist attitudes? Can we infer individual associations from aggregate data? Early analyses of the 2016 Brexit referendum used region-level data or small samples based on polling data. The former might be subject to ecological fallacy and the latter might suffer from small-sample bias. Using individual-level data on thousands of respondents in Understanding Society, we find that voting Leave is associated with older age, white ethnicity, low educational attainment, infrequent use of smartphones and the internet, receiving benefits, adverse health and low life satisfaction. These results coincide with corresponding patterns at the aggregate level of voting areas. We therefore do not find evidence of ecological fallacy

Responsible AI and Analytics for an Ethical and Inclusive Digitized Society

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IFPOC Symposium:Discovering antecedents and consequences of complex change recipients' reactions to organizational change.

IFPOC symposium: Discovering antecedents and consequences of complex change recipients' reactions to organizational change Chairs: Maria Vakola (Athens University of Economics and Business) & Karen Van Dam (Open University) Discussant: Mel Fugate (American University, Washington, D.C) State of the art Organisations are required to continuously change and develop but there is a high failure rate associated with change implementation success. In the past two decades, change researchers have started to investigate change recipients' reactions to change recognizing the crucial role of these reactions for successful change. This symposium aims at identifying and discussing the complex processes that underlie the relationships among antecedents, reactions and outcomes associated with organizational change. New perspective / contributions This symposium consists of five studies that extend our knowledge in the field by (i) providing an analysis of change recipients' reactions going beyond the dichotomous approaches (acceptance or resistance) (ii) revealing understudied antecedents-reactions and reactions-consequences patterns and relationships (iii) shedding light on the role of contextual factors i.e team climate and individual factors i.e emotion regulation on the adaptation to change. This symposium is based on a combination of both quantitative (i.e diary, survey) and qualitative (i.e interviews) research methodology. Research / practical implications This symposium aims to increase our understanding of the complex processes associated with change recipients' reactions to change. Discovering how these reactions are created and what are their results may reveal important contingencies that can explain how positive organizational outcomes during times of change can be stimulated which is beneficial for both researchers and practitioners