The dangers of performance-based research funding in non-competitive higher education systems

Giovanni Abramo (), Tindaro Cicero and Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo
Additional contact information
Giovanni Abramo: National Research Council of Italy
Tindaro Cicero: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Scientometrics, 2011, vol. 87, issue 3, No 13, 654 pages

Abstract: Abstract An increasing number of nations allocate public funds to research institutions on the basis of rankings obtained from national evaluation exercises. Therefore, in non-competitive higher education systems where top scientists are dispersed among all the universities, rather than concentrated among a few, there is a high risk of penalizing those top scientists who work in lower-performance universities. Using a 5 year bibliometric analysis conducted on all Italian universities active in the hard sciences from 2004 to 2008, this work analyzes the distribution of publications and relevant citations by scientists within the universities, measures the research performance of individual scientists, quantifies the intensity of concentration of top scientists at each university, provides performance rankings for the universities, and indicates the effects of selective funding on the top scientists of low-ranked universities.

Keywords: Performance-based research funding; Research assessment exercises; Performance variability; University; Bibliometrics; Top scientists; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0355-4

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