Research Groups in Transition: Social Dynamics, Risks and Opportunities?

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 201

Reflection on the collectivization of science through research groups

Twenty five years after the introduction of the concept of “collectivization of science” by Ziman, the importance of the research team continues to suffer of a narrow space, both in scientific literature and in the definition of academic policy. The debate ranges from a macro level, represented by changes in scientific and technological research to micro-analyses on the figure of the individual researcher. Nevertheless the scientific processes are affected by the increasingly multidisciplinary nature and the plurality of actors involved, as well as the social and cultural dynamics, often overlooked if not ignored. Our contribution aims to emphasize the importance of the research groups as the elementary unit of analysis in the definition of policies and for a better governance of universities

University Autonomy, the Professor Privilege and Academic Patenting: Italy, 1996–2007

International audienc

Self-made university rankings: Categorization tactics and communication activism in Italian universities

Higher education institutions increasingly live in environments in which they are subject to evaluation and rankings. We examine the way in which Italian (mostly public) universities adapted to the new landscape created by the official research assessments, which have produced rankings at national level, published in 2013 and 2016. We compare the media coverage of rankings after the first research assessment (covering 2004-10) and the second one (2011-4). By examining the same type of media data longitudinally, replicating regression analysis, and using robustness checks, we discover a remarkable degree of organizational adaptation. After the initial shock following the first research assessment (2004-10), in which universities were mostly passive, universities rapidly learnt how to deal with rankings. After the second exercise, they actively and professionally communicated with the media, building up self-made rankings data aimed at protecting and enhancing their image, using a range of categorization tactics

University autonomy, IP legislation and academic patenting: Italy, 1996-2007

Cahiers du GREThA 2012-2

University Autonomy, the Professor Privilege and Academic Patenting: Italy, 1996–2007

Using data on patent applications at the European Patent Office, we search for trends in academic patenting in Italy, 1996–2007. During this time, talian universities underwent a radical reform process, which granted them autonomy, and were confronted with a change in IP legislation, which introduced the professor privilege. We find that although the absolute number of academic patents has increased, (i) their weight on total patenting by domestic inventors has not, while (ii) the share of academic patents owned by universities has more than tripled. By means of a set of probit regressions, we show that the conditional probability to observe an academic patent has declined over time. We also find that the rise of university ownership is explained, significantly albeit not exclusively, by the increased autonomy of Italian universities, which has allowed them to introduce explicit IP regulations concerning their staff’s inventions. The latter has effectively neutralized the introduction of the professor privilege

Evaluating scientific research in Italy: The 2004-10 research evaluation exercise

The Italian Research Evaluation assessment for the period 2004-10 (VQR 2004-10) has analyzed almost 185,000 articles, books, patents, and other scientific outcomes submitted for evaluation by Italian universities and other public research bodies. This article describes the main features of this exercise, introducing its legal framework and the criteria used for evaluation. The innovative methodology that has been used for evaluation, based on a combination of peer review and bibliometric methods, is discussed and indicators for assessing the quality of participating research bodies are derived accordingly. The article also presents the main results obtained at the University level, trying to understand the existing relationship among research quality and University characteristics such as location, dimension, age, scientific specialization, and funding

Universities as celebrities? How the media select information from a large research assessment exercise

The article enters the international debate on university rankings, observing the visibility premium that institutions gain from their publication. Despite the deep academic skepticism towards the composite indicators used at this aim, rankings are an adaptive solution for individuals to treat information uncertain in nature. Rankings summarize many university quality dimensions into one single number and they fit well the need of media to package information. We have used data from the press review of the Italian VQR 2004–10 to analyze the factors that lead universities to be more frequently cited, under the hypothesis that the visibility of a university is a function of its intrinsic characteristics, such as number of students, prestige, age, or size or density of population in its location. Through a set of regression models, we find that the only variable that matters is the presence in the top positions

Playing the ranking game: media coverage of the evaluation of the quality of research in Italy

The paper uses original data on the media coverage of the Italian research assessmente exercise (VQR 2004-2010) in the two months following the publication of results. It shows a surprising extreme concentration of media coverage on the three best universities and the three worst. The paper offer an explanation and some recommendations for policy making