How scientific research changes the Vietnamese higher education landscape: Evidence from social sciences and humanities between 2008 and 2019

Background: In the context of globalization, Vietnamese universities, whose primary function is teaching, there is a need to improve research performance. Methods: Based on SSHPA data, an exclusive database of Vietnamese social sciences and humanities researchers’ productivity, between 2008 and 2019 period, this study analyzes the research output of Vietnamese universities in the field of social sciences and humanities. Results: Vietnamese universities have been steadily producing a high volume of publications in the 2008-2019 period, with a peak of 598 articles in 2019. Moreover, many private universities and institutions are also joining the publication race, pushing competitiveness in the country. Conclusions: Solutions to improve both quantity and quality of Vietnamese universities’ research practice in the context of the industrial revolution 4.0 could be applying international criteria in Vietnamese higher education, developing scientific and critical thinking for general and STEM education, and promoting science communication

The metric tide: report of the independent review of the role of metrics in research assessment and management

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management. The review was chaired by Professor James Wilsdon, supported by an independent and multidisciplinary group of experts in scientometrics, research funding, research policy, publishing, university management and administration. This review has gone beyond earlier studies to take a deeper look at potential uses and limitations of research metrics and indicators. It has explored the use of metrics across different disciplines, and assessed their potential contribution to the development of research excellence and impact. It has analysed their role in processes of research assessment, including the next cycle of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). It has considered the changing ways in which universities are using quantitative indicators in their management systems, and the growing power of league tables and rankings. And it has considered the negative or unintended effects of metrics on various aspects of research culture. The report starts by tracing the history of metrics in research management and assessment, in the UK and internationally. It looks at the applicability of metrics within different research cultures, compares the peer review system with metric-based alternatives, and considers what balance might be struck between the two. It charts the development of research management systems within institutions, and examines the effects of the growing use of quantitative indicators on different aspects of research culture, including performance management, equality, diversity, interdisciplinarity, and the ‘gaming’ of assessment systems. The review looks at how different funders are using quantitative indicators, and considers their potential role in research and innovation policy. Finally, it examines the role that metrics played in REF2014, and outlines scenarios for their contribution to future exercises

Elite Scientists and the Global Brain Drain

There are signs – one is world university league tables – that people increasingly think globally when choosing the university in which they wish to work and study. This paper is an exploration of data on the international brain drain. We study highly-cited physicists, highly-cited bio-scientists, and assistant professors of economics. First, we demonstrate that talented researchers are being systematically funnelled into a small number of countries. Among young economists in the top American universities, for example, 75% did their undergraduate degree outside the United States. Second, the extent of the elite brain drain is considerable. Among the world’s top physicists, nearly half no longer work in the country in which they were born. Third, the USA and Switzerland are per capita the largest net-importers of elite scientists. Fourth, we estimate the migration ‘funnelling coefficient’ at approximately 0.2 (meaning that 20% of top researchers tend to leave their country at each professional stage). Fifth, and against our prior expectations, the productivity of top scientists, as measured by the Hirsch h-index, is similar between the elite movers and stayers. Thus it is apparently not true that it is disproportionately the very best people who emigrate. Sixth, there is extreme clustering of ISI Highly Cited Researchers into particular fields in different universities. Seventh, we debate the questions: are the brain drain and this kind of funnelling good or bad for the world, and how should universities and governments respond?

A review of the literature on citation impact indicators

Citation impact indicators nowadays play an important role in research evaluation, and consequently these indicators have received a lot of attention in the bibliometric and scientometric literature. This paper provides an in-depth review of the literature on citation impact indicators. First, an overview is given of the literature on bibliographic databases that can be used to calculate citation impact indicators (Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar). Next, selected topics in the literature on citation impact indicators are reviewed in detail. The first topic is the selection of publications and citations to be included in the calculation of citation impact indicators. The second topic is the normalization of citation impact indicators, in particular normalization for field differences. Counting methods for dealing with co-authored publications are the third topic, and citation impact indicators for journals are the last topic. The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for future research

The success-index: an alternative approach to the h-index for evaluating an individual's research output

Among the most recent bibliometric indicators for normalizing the differences among fields of science in terms of citation behaviour, Kosmulski (J Informetr 5(3):481-485, 2011) proposed the NSP (number of successful paper) index. According to the authors, NSP deserves much attention for its great simplicity and immediate meaning— equivalent to those of the h-index—while it has the disadvantage of being prone to manipulation and not very efficient in terms of statistical significance. In the first part of the paper, we introduce the success-index, aimed at reducing the NSP-index's limitations, although requiring more computing effort. Next, we present a detailed analysis of the success-index from the point of view of its operational properties and a comparison with the h-index's ones. Particularly interesting is the examination of the success-index scale of measurement, which is much richer than the h-index's. This makes success-index much more versatile for different types of analysis—e.g., (cross-field) comparisons of the scientific output of (1) individual researchers, (2) researchers with different seniority, (3) research institutions of different size, (4) scientific journals, etc

Modified Impact Factor (MIF) at Specialty Level: A Way Forward

AbstractJournal Impact Factor (JIF) is gold standard in the field of bibliometric whether published or perished. Its opposition is mainly because of inter- and intra-disciplinary discrepancies. By normalization compared to highest JIF, Modified Impact Factor (MIF) were calculated at disciplines, branches and specialties level & termed as Red, Yellow and Green MIF respectively. For this purpose 10 Top JIF during 2010 from some disciplines of medical & engineering were taken. Then JIF of their branches and specialties were accounted and converted to MIF. Comparative analysis of MIF was more meaningful to remove inter- and intra-disciplinary discrepancies. This new method will help universities as well as researchers to find their proper place values at the specialty level in the era of advancing bibliometric in general & journal reputation, in particular

Responding to the vision of the information society: first steps towards a national virtual university.

Executive Summary 1. There is confusion, both in academic circles and the public more generally, about the definition of a virtual university. Hence in considering such an option, it is worth looking more fundamentally at the contexts for higher education, and the functions of a National Virtual University equipped to meet the needs of the 21st Century. 2. The increase in the use of ICT has caused a radical increase in demand for higher education globally, and increased access to higher education via the use of ICT. New suppliers in the form of private and corporate universities, now compete with universities in their home countries, and increasingly, overseas. 3. Although demands for higher education are growing rapidly, analysis of the new and changing demands on universities at local, national and international levels, within an increasingly global knowledge market, indicates that the role of a National Virtual University will be much broader than that of an existing university. Moreover, a NVU will need to successfully compete in an environment which is growing in competitiveness and complexity as corporate universities start to operate, but will have to do so with greater efficiency and lower funding. 4. The socio-economic environment in Finland is characterised by an internationally high (and growing) involvement with information and communication technologies in all spheres of life. Within this fast developing Information Society, there is a high need for increasing skills levels and retraining, especially with respect to ICT. However, like elsewhere in Europe, the use of technology for collaborative teaching in Universities and for promoting joint research with industry, is comparatively underexploited, although the existing higher education platform, provides a useful structure which could adapt to, and benefit from, the establishment of a National Virtual University. 5. The rationale for incorporating the use of new technologies in higher education by building a National Virtual University is well-established. Such a development would require a quantum leap in the design and development of a new learning method. However, in addition to educational benefits, the NVU would aid the creation of a knowledge based economy, the promotion of social cohesion, the protection of the existing Finnish university system, and the preservation of national language and culture. 6. The experience of previous virtual university ventures in the USA demonstrates that collaborative ventures, based on existing providers and reliant on reengineering of existing teaching and learning practices, are unlikely to be successful, even where they are well financed. A National Virtual University can be constructed with varying degrees of functionality, but where it covers all ranges of university activities (teaching, research and technology transfer), and is well-linked to the local community, the cost of development will be high but the returns on expenditure will be greatest. 7. A project of this size, complexity, cost and importance will only succeed in maximising its potential as a collaborative venture, if it involves all stakeholder groups in discussing its form, as consensus on the form of the NVU will be critical in ensuring the success of its implementation

Building LGBT Nonprofit Leadership Talent: Thoughts and Suggestions for LGBT Organizations and Funders

Offers a model for supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender nonprofit leadership development: define strategic aims and recruit, manage, develop, and retain talent. Includes practical guidance and list of LGBT leadership development programs

Using Visual Illusions to Examine Action-Related Perceptual Changes

Action has many influences on how and what we perceive. One robust example of the relationship between action and subsequent perception, which has recently received great attention in the cognitive sciences, is the “intentional binding” effect: When people estimate the timing of their actions and those actions’ effects, they judge the actions and effects as having occurred closer together in time than two events that do not involve voluntary action (Haggard, Clark, & Kalogeras, 2002). This dissertation examines the possible mechanisms and consequences of the intentional binding effect. First, in Chapter 1, I discuss previous literature on the relationships between experiences of time, action, and causality. Impressions of time and causality are psychologically related: The perceived timing of events impacts, and is impacted by, perceived causality. Similarly, one’s experience of causing and controlling events with voluntary action, sometimes called the sense of agency, shapes and is shaped by how those events’ timing is perceived—as shown by the intentional binding effect. In Chapter 2 I present a series of experiments investigating a hypothesized mechanism underlying the intentional binding effect: Actions may lead to a slowing of subjective time, which would explain the intentional binding effect by postulating a shorter experienced duration between action and effect. This hypothesis predicts that, following action, durations separating any two stimuli would appear subjectively shorter. We tested this hypothesis in the context of visual motion illusions: Two visual stimuli are presented in short succession and if the duration between the stimuli (inter-stimulus interval; ISI) is short, participants tend to perceive motion such that the first stimulus appears to move to the position of the second stimulus. If actions shorten subjective durations, even in visual perception, people should observe motion at longer ISIs when the stimuli follow voluntary action because the two stimuli would be separated by less subjective time. Three experiments confirmed this prediction. An additional experiment showed that verbal estimates of the ISI are also shorter following action. A control experiment suggested that a shift in the ability to prepare for the stimuli, afforded by the participant initiating the stimuli, is an unlikely alternative explanation of the observed results. In Chapter 3 I further investigate whether temporal contiguity of actions and their effects, which is known to impact intentional binding, affects perceptions of visual motion illusions. Two experiments showed that temporal contiguity modulates perceptions of illusory motion in a manner similar to contiguity’s effect on intentional binding. Together, these results show that actions impact perception of visual motion illusions and suggest that general slowing of subjective time is a plausible mechanism underlying the intentional binding effect