422 research outputs found
Assessing technical and cost efficiency of research activities: A case study of the Italian university system
This paper employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess both technical
and cost efficiency of research activities of the Italian university system.
Differently from both peer review and the top-down discipline-invariant
bibliographic approaches used elsewhere, a bottom-up bibliometric methodology
is applied. Publications are assigned first to authors and then to one of nine
scientific and technical university disciplinary areas. Inputs are specified in
terms of the numbers of full, associate and assistant professors and outputs as
the number of publications, contributions to publications and their scientific
impact as variously measured across the disciplines included. DEA is undertaken
cross-sectionally using the averages of these inputs and outputs over the
period 2001-2003. The results typically show much variation in the rankings of
the disciplinary areas within and across universities, depending on the
efficiency indicator employed
How do you define and measure research productivity?
Productivity is the quintessential indicator of efficiency in any production
system. It seems it has become a norm in bibliometrics to define research
productivity as the number of publications per researcher, distinguishing it
from impact. In this work we operationalize the economic concept of
productivity for the specific context of research activity and show the limits
of the commonly accepted definition. We propose then a measurable form of
research productivity through the indicator "Fractional Scientific Strength
(FSS)", in keeping with the microeconomic theory of production. We present the
methodology for measure of FSS at various levels of analysis: individual,
field, discipline, department, institution, region and nation. Finally, we
compare the ranking lists of Italian universities by the two definitions of
research productivity
The dispersion of research performance within and between universities as a potential indicator of the competitive intensity in higher education systems
Higher education systems in competitive environments generally present top
universities, that are able to attract top scientists, top students and public
and private financing, with notable socio-economic benefits in their region.
The same does not hold true for non-competitive systems. In this study we will
measure the dispersion of research performance within and between universities
in the Italian university system, typically non-competitive. We will also
investigate the level of correlation that occurs between performance in
research and its dispersion in universities. The findings may represent a first
benchmark for similar studies in other nations. Furthermore, they lead to
policy indications, questioning the effectiveness of selective funding of
universities based on national research assessment exercises. The field of
observation is composed of all Italian universities active in the hard
sciences. Research performance will be evaluated using a bibliometric approach,
through publications indexed in the Web of Science between 2004 and 2008
National research assessment exercises: a measure of the distortion of performance rankings when labor input is treated as uniform
Measuring the efficiency of scientific research activity presents critical
methodological aspects, many of which have not been sufficiently studied.
Although many studies have assessed the relation between quality and research
productivity and academic rank, not much is known about the extent of
distortion in national university performance rankings when academic rank and
the other labor factors are not considered as a factor of normalization. This
work presents a comparative analysis that aims to quantify the sensitivity of
bibliometric rankings to the choice of input, with input considered as only the
number of researchers on staff, or alternatively where their cost is also
considered. The field of observation consists of all 69 Italian universities
active in the hard sciences. Performance measures are based on the 81,000
publications produced during the 2004-2006 triennium by all 34,000 research
staff, with analysis carried out at the level of individual disciplines, 187 in
total. The effect of the switch from labor to cost seems to be minimal except
for a few outliers
A multivariate stochastic model to assess research performance
There is a worldwide trend towards application of bibliometric research
evaluation, in support of the needs of policy makers and research
administrators. However the assumptions and limitations of bibliometric
measurements suggest a probabilistic rather than the traditional deterministic
approach to the assessment of research performance. The aim of this work is to
propose a multivariate stochastic model for measuring the performance of
individual scientists and to compare the results of its application with those
arising from a deterministic approach. The dataset of the analysis covers the
scientific production indexed in Web of Science for the 2006-2010 period, of
over 900 Italian academic scientists working in two distinct fields of the life
sciences
A national-scale cross-time analysis of university research performance
Research policies in the more developed nations are ever more oriented
towards the introduction of productivity incentives and competition mechanisms
intended to increase efficiency in research institutions. Assessments of the
effects of these policy interventions on public research activity often neglect
the normal, inherent variation in the performance of research institutions over
time. In this work, we propose a cross-time bibliometric analysis of research
performance by all Italian universities in two consecutive periods (2001-2003
and 2004-2008) not affected by national policy interventions. Findings show
that productivity and impact increased at the level of individual scientists.
At the level of university, significant variation in the rank was observed
The relationship between scientists' research performance and the degree of internationalization of their research
Policy makers, at various levels of governance, generally encourage the
development of research collaboration. However the underlying determinants of
collaboration are not completely clear. In particular, the literature lacks
studies that, taking the individual researcher as the unit of analysis, attempt
to understand if and to what extent the researcher's scientific performance
might impact on his/her degree of collaboration with foreign colleagues. The
current work examines the international collaborations of Italian university
researchers for the period 2001-2005, and puts them in relation to each
individual's research performance. The results of the investigation, which
assumes co-authorship as proxy of research collaboration, show that both
research productivity and average quality of output have positive effects on
the degree of international collaboration achieved by a scientist
Assessing public-private research collaboration: is it possible to compare university performance?
It is widely recognized that collaboration between the public and private
research sectors should be stimulated and supported, as a means of favoring
innovation and regional development. This work takes a bibliometric approach,
based on co-authorship of scientific publications, to propose a model for
comparative measurement of the performance of public research institutions in
collaboration with the domestic industry collaboration with the private sector.
The model relies on an identification and disambiguation algorithm developed by
the authors to link each publication to its real authors. An example of
application of the model is given, for the case of the academic system and
private enterprises in Italy. The study demonstrates that for each scientific
discipline and each national administrative region, it is possible to measure
the performance of individual universities in both intra-regional and
extra-regional collaboration, normalized with respect to advantages of
location. Such results may be useful in informing regional policies and
merit-based public funding of research organizations
A Decision Support System for Public Research Organizations Participating in National Research Assessment Exercises
We are witnessing a rapid trend towards the adoption of exercises for
evaluation of national research systems, generally based on the peer review
approach. They respond to two main needs: stimulating higher efficiency in
research activities by public laboratories, and realizing better allocative
efficiency in government funding of such institutions. However the peer review
approach is typified by several limitations that raise doubts for the
achievement of the ultimate objectives. In particular, subjectivity of
judgment, which occurs during the step of selecting research outputs to be
submitted for the evaluations, risks heavily distorting both the final ratings
of the organizations evaluated and the ultimate funding they receive. These
distortions become ever more relevant if the evaluation is limited to small
samples of the scientific production of the research institutions. The
objective of the current study is to propose a quantitative methodology based
on bibliometric data that would provide a reliable support for the process of
selecting the best products of a laboratory, and thus limit distortions.
Benefits are twofold: single research institutions can maximize the probability
of receiving a fair evaluation coherent with the real quality of their
research. At the same time, broader adoptions of this approach could also
provide strong advantages at the macroeconomic level, since it guarantees
financial allocations based on the real value of the institutions under
evaluation. In this study, the proposed methodology has been applied to the
hard science sectors of the Italian university research system for the period
2004-2006
Research collaboration and productivity: is there correlation?
The incidence of extramural collaboration in academic research activities is
increasing as a result of various factors. These factors include policy
measures aimed at fostering partnership and networking among the various
components of the research system, policies which are in turn justified by the
idea that knowledge sharing could increase the effectiveness of the system.
Over the last two decades, the scientific community has also stepped up
activities to assess the actual impact of collaboration intensity on the
performance of research systems. This study draws on a number of empirical
analyses, with the intention of measuring the effects of extramural
collaboration on research performance and, indirectly, verifying the legitimacy
of policies that support this type of collaboration. The analysis focuses on
the Italian academic research system. The aim of the work is to assess the
level of correlation, at institutional level, between scientific productivity
and collaboration intensity as a whole, both internationally and with private
organizations. This will be carried out using a bibliometric type of approach,
which equates collaboration with the co-authorship of scientific publications
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