Research assessment in the humanities: problems and challenges

Research assessment is going to play a new role in the governance of universities and research institutions. Evaluation of results is evolving from a simple tool for resource allocation towards policy design. In this respect "measuring" implies a different approach to quantitative aspects as well as to an estimation of qualitative criteria that are difficult to define. Bibliometrics became so popular, in spite of its limits, just offering a simple solution to complex problems. The theory behind it is not so robust but available results confirm this method as a reasonable trade off between costs and benefits. Indeed there are some fields of science where quantitative indicators are very difficult to apply due to the lack of databases and data, in few words the credibility of existing information. Humanities and social sciences (HSS) need a coherent methodology to assess research outputs but current projects are not very convincing. The possibility of creating a shared ranking of journals by the value of their contents at either institutional, national or European level is not enough as it is raising the same bias as in the hard sciences and it does not solve the problem of the various types of outputs and the different, much longer time of creation and dissemination. The web (and web 2.0) represents a revolution in the communication of research results mainly in the HSS, and also their evaluation has to take into account this change. Furthermore, the increase of open access initiatives (green and gold road) offers a large quantity of transparent, verifiable data structured according to international standards that allow comparability beyond national limits and above all is independent from commercial agents. The pilot scheme carried out at the university of Milan for the Faculty of Humanities demonstrated that it is possible to build quantitative, on average more robust indicators, that could provide a proxy of research production and productiivity even in the HSS

Open Access: principali ostacoli per un'ampia diffusione in Italia

This article considers the main (not only legal) obstacles to a large diffusion of Open Access in Ital

Research assessment in the humanities: problems and challenges

Research assessment is going to play a new role in the governance of universities and research institutions. Evaluation of results is evolving from a simple tool for resource allocation towards policy design. In this respect "measuring" implies a different approach to quantitative aspects as well as to an estimation of qualitative criteria that are difficult to define. Bibliometrics became so popular, in spite of its limits, just offering a simple solution to complex problems. The theory behind it is not so robust but available results confirm this method as a reasonable trade off between costs and benefits. Indeed there are some fields of science where quantitative indicators are very difficult to apply due to the lack of databases and data, in few words the credibility of existing information. Humanities and social sciences (HSS) need a coherent methodology to assess research outputs but current projects are not very convincing. The possibility of creating a shared ranking of journals by the value of their contents at either institutional, national or European level is not enough as it is raising the same bias as in the hard sciences and it does not solve the problem of the various types of outputs and the different, much longer time of creation and dissemination. The web (and web 2.0) represents a revolution in the communication of research results mainly in the HSS, and also their evaluation has to take into account this change. Furthermore, the increase of open access initiatives (green and gold road) offers a large quantity of transparent, verifiable data structured according to international standards that allow comparability beyond national limits and above all is independent from commercial agents. The pilot scheme carried out at the university of Milan for the Faculty of Humanities demonstrated that it is possible to build quantitative, on average more robust indicators, that could provide a proxy of research production and productiivity even in the HSS

Open access e scienze umane

Brief presentation on the state of the art of Open Access in Humanities in Italy (TEMPLATE for the documents to be presented at the Open Access Week 2009

Open access e scienze umane

Brief presentation on the state of the art of Open Access in Humanities in Italy (TEMPLATE for the documents to be presented at the Open Access Week 2009

Indagine sui costi di accesso e disseminazione della conoscenza scientifica

In Europa le contrattazioni consortili per l’acquisto di risorse elettroniche hanno subito un grosso scossone per via del tentativo di alcuni consorzi (DEAL, Bibsam) di inserire i costi per l’accesso aperto nei contratti consortili alla ricerca di una più equa ridistribuzione dei costi. Lo scopo è quello di evitare che le istituzioni paghino per gli abbonamenti e anche per la pubblicazione open access (in gergo si chiama double dipping). La situazione in Italia ha preso una piega ben diversa perché il pacchetto contrattato dal consorzio nazionale prevede proprio questo double dipping. Quali sono le ragioni che hanno portato il consorzio italiano a concludere una trattativa in controtendenza con gli altri consorzi? AISA ha cercato di comprendere le ragioni degli atenei che hanno acconsentito a questa iniziativa, attraverso un questionario indirizzato a parte politica e parte tecnica degli atenei membri della associazione. L’intervento illustra i risultati del questionario. [Last talk of the AISA 4th annual conference "Scienza aperta, pubblicità, democrazia"

Open Access e ricerca responsabile

La necessità di giustificare gli investimenti fatti in R&D e le diverse forme che questa necessità ha assunto in Europa e nel nostro Paese (confusione rispetto alle finalità della ricerca, eccesso di burocratizzazione, esasperazione della valutazione quantitativa, uso indiscriminato e spesso scorretto degli indicatori bibliometrici) hanno condotto a comportamenti e pratiche da parte dei ricercatori spesso scorrette. Nell’epoca del publish or perish il tempo a disposizione per il controllo dei dati e dei risultati è sempre meno, così come quello da dedicare alla revisione dei lavori dei colleghi, e spesso preso nei complessi ingranaggi degli avanzamenti di carriera, dei finanziamenti dei progetti, della ricerca del prestigio, il ricercatore sembra dimenticare quale siano gli obiettivi. La EC fa un richiamo esplicito ai ricercatori e alle istituzioni per un ritorno all’etica della ricerca e nel suo programma Science with and for Society richiama il concetto di Ricerca responsabile. Una delle azioni attraverso le quali realizzare la ricerca responsabile è certamente l’Open Access, come modalità di disseminazione della ricerca ma anche e soprattutto della trasparenza dei processi (e responsabilità) di valutazione. La finalità ultima è quella di una ricerca che corrisponda ai bisogni e alle aspettative della società, che si fondi sulla collaborazione più che sulla competizione e che individui con chiarezza i suoi reali interlocutori

Aperto per chi? Il valore della scienza aperta

We are in an era of rapid evolution of scholarly communication. The inaccessibility of quality texts, data, and processes is being replaced by a choral demand for transparency, equity, and democraticity. The idea of a competitive and exclusive science is replaced by that of a collaborative science in which the sharing of results is the founding value and strength for faster development. The role of commercial publishers who must reinvent themselves in this new context changes and is challenged; the balance of power between editors, reviewers and authors changes. The tools for responding to this choral demand for transparency are all at our disposal, but still from the scientific communities there is some difficulty in taking on board the new ways of practicing, validating and disseminating research. There is still some distrust and perhaps dismay in front of possible audiences and a research life cycle that is potentially never-ending. On the shoulders of giants, Newton quoted. And this is especially true if the economic and legal barriers that have hitherto been an obstacle, or at least a slowdown to the development of scientific research are removed. "Doctor Virtualis" is a humanistic journal that embraced in rather distant times the philosophy of openness promoted by the university that has proved successful today. Its story is the story of the journal platform that hosts it to which the journal has joined since its first year.Ci troviamo in un’epoca di grandi mutamenti e di veloce evoluzione della comunicazione scientifica. Alla chiusura e inaccessibilità di testi, dati e processi di qualità si sostituisce la richiesta corale di trasparenza, equità e democraticità. All’idea di una scienza competitiva ed esclusiva si sostituisce quella di una scienza collaborativa in cui la condivisione dei risultati è il valore fondante e punto di forza per un più veloce sviluppo. Cambia e viene messo in discussione il ruolo degli editori commerciali che devono reinventarsi in questo nuovo contesto, cambiano gli equilibri di potere fra editor, revisori ed autori. Gli strumenti per rispondere a questa richiesta corale di trasparenza sono tutti a nostra disposizione, ma ancora da parte delle comunità scientifiche si avverte qualche difficoltà a recepire le nuove modalità di pratica, validazione e disseminazione della ricerca. Ancora si assiste a una certa diffidenza e forse sgomento di fronte ai pubblici possibili e ad un ciclo di vita delle ricerche che è potenzialmente infinito. Sulle spalle dei giganti, citava Newton. E ciò è soprattutto vero se vengono eliminate le barriere economiche e legali che hanno fino ad ora rappresentato un ostacolo, o per lo meno un rallentamento per lo sviluppo della ricerca scientifica. "Doctor Virtualis" è una rivista umanistica, di settore, che ha abbracciato in tempi piuttosto lontani la filosofia dell’apertura promossa dall’ateneo che oggi si è rivelata vincente. La sua storia è la storia della piattaforma di riviste che la ospita alla quale la rivista ha aderito fin dal primo anno.   We are in an era of rapid evolution of scholarly communication. The inaccessibility of quality texts, data, and processes is being replaced by a choral demand for transparency, equity, and democraticity. The idea of a competitive and exclusive science is replaced by that of a collaborative science in which the sharing of results is the founding value and strength for faster development. The role of commercial publishers who must reinvent themselves in this new context changes and is challenged; the balance of power between editors, reviewers and authors changes. The tools for responding to this choral demand for transparency are all at our disposal, but still from the scientific communities there is some difficulty in taking on board the new ways of practicing, validating and disseminating research. There is still some distrust and perhaps dismay in front of possible audiences and a research life cycle that is potentially never-ending. On the shoulders of giants, Newton quoted. And this is especially true if the economic and legal barriers that have hitherto been an obstacle, or at least a slowdown to the development of scientific research are removed. Doctor Virtualis is a humanistic journal that embraced in rather distant times the philosophy of openness promoted by the university that has proved successful today. Its story is the story of the journal platform that hosts it to which the journal has joined since its first year

Verso un nuovo scenario per la valutazione della ricerca: potenzialità dell’Open Access e limiti imposti dal contesto

The aim of this work is to report about the unconventional use of an institutional repository, that has been used as data source to assess the scientific production and productivity within the Departments of the Faculty of Letters at the University of Milan. The analysis of the results of the pilot shows that the archive and the data manager are a valid instrument to aggregate and analyze large quantities of bibliographic metadata, so the pilot can be extended to the whole university. A comparison with other universities is difficult since the use of institutional respositories is not so widespread, and there is no security on the coverage and the comprehensiveness of the data inside them. To conclude, there is a strong necessity to widen the presence and the usage of institutional repositories, according to the Recommendations of the Conference of the Rectors of Italian Universities (CRUI), and to update methodologies and processes of evaluation considering new models of production, fruition, and dissemination of scientific outputs. Moreover, the open access approach not only widens the potentialities of an easier access to information, but modifies the fruition of the information itself. The evaluative scenario must adapt to the new circumstances, as well as web circulation of the information has modified the measurability of contents with respect to the results in the publications themselves