Tracking the performance of an R&D programme in the biomedical sciences

Pre-refereed version of manuscript accepted for publication in Research EvaluatioN: arXiv:1602.04049This article aims at offering an evaluation framework of an R&D programme in the biomedical sciences. It showcases the Spanish Biomedical Research Networking Centres (CIBER) initiative as an example of the effect of research policy management on performance. For this, it focuses on three specific aspects: its role on the national research output in the biomedical sciences, its effect on promoting translational research through internal collaboration between research groups, and the perception of researchers on the programme as defined by their inclusion of their CIBER centres in the address field. Research output derived from this programme represents around 25% of the country’s publications in the biomedical fields. After analysing a 7-year period, the programme has enhanced collaborations between its members, but they do not seem to be sufficiently strong. 54.5% of the publications mentioned this programme in their address; however, an increase in the share of papers mention is observed 2 years after it was launched. We suggest that by finding the point at which the share of mentions stabilizes may be a good strategy to identify the complete fulfilment of these types of R&D policies.This work was supported by the Spanish Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria (FIS) [PI10/01122].Peer reviewe

Trends in Science Mapping: The co-use of scientific literature as evidence of the interests of researchers

This is a preprint version of a paper accepted to be published in El Profesional de la Información – ISSN 1386-6710 Special number on information visualization - May 2014This paper explores de possibility of constructing science maps based on the co-use of the staff of an academic institution make of scientific literature. For this, we define co-use as the co-occurrence of scientific information requests by a given user in platform of scientific journals. We use request data from the University of Navarre to the ScienceDirect platform in 2012 in order to analyze the potential of such methodological approach. We conclude by emphasizing the viability of such methodology when exploring the research interests of an academic institution along with the relations between different disciplines.Nicolás Robinson-García is currently supported by a FPU grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

The impact of a few: the Institució Catalana de Recerça i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) [póster]

It analyzes the effect the Catalan ICREA programme has had on the number of highly cited papers in Catalan universities

How many citations are there in the Data Citation Index?

19th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators (STI), Leiden (The Netherlands) 3-5 september 2014.Descriptive analysis on the citation distribution of the Thomson Reuters' Data Citation Index by publication type and four broad areas: Science, Engineering & Technology, Humanities & Arts and Social Sciences.Nicolas Robinson-García is currently supported by a FPU Grant of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

Can we use altmetrics at the institutional level? A case study analysing the coverage by research areas of four Spanish universities

Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators (STI 2016). València (Spain), September 14-16, 2016.This paper aims at exploring the coverage of the Altmetric.com database and its potential use in order to show universities’ research profiles in relationship with other databases. Specifically, our objectives are the following:1. Analyse the coverage of Altmetric.com at the institutional level and verify its validity as a data source for obtaining alternative metrics derived from the research activity of universities in comparison with those from the Web of Science. For this, we will work with a small sample of four Spanish universities with different characteristics.2. Analyse coverage differences when obtaining bibliometric profiles from Altmetric.com and Web of Science. In some studies a higher coverage of the Social Sciences and Humanities has been reported, suggesting the potential of altmetric indicators in these areas (Costas, Zahedi, & Wouters, 2015b).Nicolás Robinson García is currently supported by a Juan de la Cierva-Formación Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Análisis estadístico de los presupuestos municipales 2004-2013 de San Rafael y encuesta de opinión

El objetivo principal de este trabajo de investigación es analizar las relaciones entre los recursos y gastos del municipio de San Rafael y aplicar herramientas estadísticas para explicar esas relaciones y así interpretar las más importantes. Otro incentivo de esta investigación fue presuponer una gran desinformación entre los ciudadanos sobre esta temática. Esto motivó la realización de encuestas de opinión al respecto. Aquí, aplicamos en forma conjunta dos temas de nuestra carrera sumamente importantes como la hacienda pública y la estadística, intentando dar una visión objetiva a un tema cotidiano como son los presupuestos municipales. Dado que nuestro trabajo es de tipo exploratorio no partimos de una hipótesis concreta a probar. Concluido el trabajo de exploración sobre los presupuestos municipales, se intentará describir el conocimiento de la población acerca de los mismos y las opiniones sobre la utilización de éstos. Nuestra investigación ha sido realizada en base a dos tipos de fuentes de datos. Una fuente secundaria suministrada por el Municipio de San Rafael. Sobre dichos datos realizamos gráficos y obtuvimos medidas descriptivas. Y finalmente una fuente primaria, a través de las encuestas diseñadas y realizadas por nosotros a los ciudadanos, para la posterior aplicación de herramientas estadísticas apropiadas.Fil: García, Vanesa Inés. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.Fil: González, Mayra Daniela. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.Fil: Jiménez, Nicolás Guillermo. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.Fil: Kruger, Norma Carina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas

Complementary Material to the study "Reviewers' ratings and bibliometric indicators: hand in hand when assessing over research proposals?

Complementary material of a study which analyzes the influence of bibliometric indicators.This work was supported by the National R&D Plan 2008 (research project Parameterization of citation indicators at a national level according with the ANEP categories [TIN2008-03180-E])

Searching Research Excellence: An in-depth bibliometric analysis of the international research contribution of the University of Granada

The main goal of this report is to offer a comprehensive portray of the research performance and impact of the University of Granada. It presents a bibliometric longitudinal analysis for the 1980-2013 time period, including bibliometric indicators for 195 subject categories. Hence showing a general analysis and specific analyses by subjects. These 195 analyses by subjects show the strengths and weaknesses of the research system. Thus, the reader may identify the disciplines in which the University of Granada currently or historically has been more productive or had a greater impact. These disciplines comprise four broad areas: Humanities & Social Sciences, Engineering & Technology, Exact & Natural Sciences, and Life & Health Sciences. The report is directed to the academic staff of the University of Granada. Its objective is to show the state of research at the university in an accurate and reliable fashion. There is a brief bibliometric report for each subject category which showcases research trends, bibliometric indicators and a list of the most productive researchers.Universidad de Granada. Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Política Científica

Reviewers’ ratings and bibliometric indicators: hand in hand when assessing over research proposals?

The authors would like to thank Rodrigo Costas and Antonio Callaba de Roa for their helpful comments in previous version of this paper as well as the two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments. We would also like to thank Bryan J. Robinson for revising the text. Nicolas Robinson-García is currently supported with a FPU grant from the Spanish government, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.Background: The peer review system has been traditionally challenged due to its many limitations especially for allocating funding. Bibliometric indicators may well present themselves as a complement. Objective: We analyze the relationship between peers' ratings and bibliometric indicators for Spanish researchers in the 2007 National R&D Plan for 23 research fields. Methods and materials: We analyze peers' ratings for 2333 applications. We also gathered principal investigators' research output and impact and studied the differences between accepted and rejected applications. We used the Web of Science database and focused on the 2002-2006 period. First, we analyzed the distribution of granted and rejected proposals considering a given set of bibliometric indicators to test if there are significant differences. Then, we applied a multiple logistic regression analysis to determine if bibliometric indicators can explain by themselves the concession of grant proposals. Results: 63.4% of the applications were funded. Bibliometric indicators for accepted proposals showed a better previous performance than for those rejected; however the correlation between peer review and bibliometric indicators is very heterogeneous among most areas. The logistic regression analysis showed that the main bibliometric indicators that explain the granting of research proposals in most cases are the output (number of published articles) and the number of papers published in journals that belong to the first quartile ranking of the Journal Citations Report. Discussion: Bibliometric indicators predict the concession of grant proposals at least as well as peer ratings. Social Sciences and Education are the only areas where no relation was found, although this may be due to the limitations of the Web of Science's coverage. These findings encourage the use of bibliometric indicators as a complement to peer review in most of the analyzed area