Journal metrics as predictors of Research Excellence Framework 2021 results : comparison of impact factor quartiles and Finnish expert-ratings

Abstract: This study compares citation-based and expert-based journal metrics as predictors of peer-assessed research quality based on 154,826 journal articles submitted to UK\u2019s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. The Finnish expert-based Julkaisufoorumi (JUFO) level ratings of journals determined by expert-panels per field produce scores that correlate more strongly with REF scores than those based on citation-based Journal Impact Factor (JIF) or Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) Quartiles. This holds true at aggregate levels of 34 Subject areas, 157 Higher Education Institutions (HEI), and 1,888 Units of Assessment (UoA). Especially non-field-normalised JIF-based scores correlate poorly with REF scores. All types of journal metrics are more aligned with expert-based REF scores at the highest aggregate level of HEIs and agree less at the lower aggregate level of UoAs and Subject areas

Integration of national publication databases : towards a high-quality and comprehensive information base on scholarly publications in Europe

The need for a comprehensive infrastructure for scholarly publication information has been on the EU’s agenda for a long time. Also, the European Commission’s open science policy highlights the necessity of a good information base to follow up open access publishing across Europe. However, an all-inclusive information infrastructure on research publications is still missing. During the past 10 years, European countries have invested significantly in national research information infrastructures. Now, at least 20 European countries have a national database for research publication metadata. The strength of these databases lies in their comprehensiveness and quality assurance since they often have a mandatory nature. They are, however, neither yet integrated nor widely used for cross- country comparisons. To this end, a proof of concept of a European publication infrastructure was carried out in the framework of ENRESSH (www.enressh.e