National peer-review research assessment exercises for the hard sciences can be a complete waste of money: the Italian case

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, 2013, vol. 95, issue 1, No 21, 324 pages

Abstract: Abstract There has been ample demonstration that bibliometrics is superior to peer-review for national research assessment exercises in the hard sciences. In this paper we examine the Italian case, taking the 2001–2003 university performance rankings list based on bibliometrics as benchmark. We compare the accuracy of the first national evaluation exercise, conducted entirely by peer-review, to other rankings lists prepared at zero cost, based on indicators indirectly linked to performance or available on the Internet. The results show that, for the hard sciences, the costs of conducting the Italian evaluation of research institutions could have been completely avoided.

Keywords: Research evaluation; Bibliometrics; VTR; Ranking; Productivity; Universities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-012-0875-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:95:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0875-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0875-6

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().