Putting personality in context: determinants of research productivity and impact in political science

Scientometrics - Research on the determinants of scholarly productivity is flourishing, driven both by long-standing curiosity about its wide variation, and by recent concern over race and gender...     

The Albuquerque model and efficiency indicators in national scientific productivity with respect to manpower and funding in science

Due to recession in the world economy there is a trend towards a reduction in growth of R&D expenditure in the G7 countries. At the same time countries like China and Korea are investing more in scientific research. We compare the differences in the inputs to science for different countries and explore the level of efficiency in the output of scientific papers with respect to inputs such as manpower and investment. We find that the EU countries are relatively more efficient than Japan, the USA and also China and Korea so far as the production of papers is concerned. However, if efficiency is considered in terms of patents, Japan Korea and the USA are ahead. We compare our results with Albuquerque’s model linking patent to paper ratios and development, and find significant deviations for some countries. We deduce that there has been a shift from publishing towards patenting in certain countries and link it to high contribution from the business sector to R&D expenditure. Preliminary results of this analysis have been presented in Basu (In Proceedings of the 14th International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) Conference, 2013).     

Improving quality assessment of composite indicators in university rankings: a case study of French and German universities of excellence

Composite indicators play an essential role for benchmarking higher education institutions. One of the main sources of uncertainty building composite indicators and, undoubtedly, the most debated problem in building composite indicators is the weighting schemes (assigning weights to the simple indicators or subindicators) together with the aggregation schemes (final composite indicator formula). Except the ideal situation where weights are provided by the theory, there clearly is a need for improving quality assessment of the final rank linked with a fixed vector of weights. We propose to use simulation techniques to generate random perturbations around any initial vector of weights to obtain robust and reliable ranks allowing to rank universities in a range bracket. The proposed methodology is general enough to be applied no matter the weighting scheme used for the composite indicator. The immediate benefit achieved is a reduction of the uncertainty associated with the assessment of a specific rank which is not representative of the real performance of the university, and an improvement of the quality assessment of composite indicators used to rank. To illustrate the proposed methodology we rank the French and the German universities involved in their respective 2008 Excellence Initiatives.     

Economic, linguistic, and political factors in the scientific productivity of countries

This paper examines the influence of economic, linguistic, and political factors in the scientific productivity of countries across selected scientific disciplines. Using a negative binomial regression model, I show that the effect of these determinants is contingent upon the scientific field under analysis. The only variable that exerts a positive and significant effect across all disciplines is the size of the economy. The linguistic variable only has a positive influence in the social sciences as well as in medicine and agricultural sciences. In addition, it is also demonstrated that the degree of political authoritarianism has a negative and statistically significant effect in some of the selected fields.     

The effects of changes in the funding structure of the Flemish universities on their research capacity, productivity and impact during the 1980's and early 1990's

This article addresses the following issues: How did external funding of Flemish academic research develop during the 1980's and early 1990's? What are the effects of the increase of external funding on the size and the composition of the research capacity in Flemish universities, and on research performance as reflected in bibliometric indicators? We present results of a quantitative analysis of 340 research departments in the natural and life sciences at three Flemish universities. We found that the externally funded research capacity increased strongly and is more and more concentrated in a limited number of departments. Departments with a high international standing have profited more from external funds than groups with a low impact. In the class of departments showing the strongest increase in the externally funded research capacity, the ratio of the number of junior and senior scientists in these departments increased radically, while the publication productivity decreased. Our findings point towards the problem that if these trends continue to develop, a situation may emerge in which the basis normally provided by the university itself has become too small for externally funded research activities.     

The model of maximum productivity for research universities SciVal author ranks,productivity, university rankings,and their implications

Scientometrics - Aware of the growing importance of global rankings, universities aim to enhance their positions. However, the exact relation between research productivity and ranking positions is...     

Indicator system for managing science,technology and innovation in universities

Scientometrics - The formulation of standardized measurement indicators of science, technology and innovation at the international, regional and institutional level remains a continuing need....     

Comparing research productivity of returnee-PhDs in science,engineering, and the social sciences

Comparing research output of foreign-trained doctorates (returnee PhDs) with those trained in the home country allows us to test effects of scientists’ mobility on research productivity, and informs policies aimed towards incentivizing return of foreign-trained scientists. This study compared research output of returnee PhDs in three fields that vary in resource-dependency (social sciences, sciences, and engineering), factoring in seniority and gender. Scientometric analysis (n?=?1056) compared research outputs of returnee PhDs & home-PhDs (h-Index and citations) at three levels of seniority (assistant, associate, professor) in the three fields. The comparison suggests that on average (independent of field), research output of returnee PhDs does not exceed that of home-PhDs, however, returnee PhD research output compared to that of home-PhDs in the sciences is substantially low compared to the difference in output observed in the social sciences and engineering fields. In sciences field, returnee PhDs’ output is lower than that of home-PhD at all three academic positions, whereas in the engineering field, returnee PhDs at the starting and senior-most positions show greater research productivity than home-PhDs. In social sciences, returnee PhDs’ research output exceeds that of home-PhDs only at the senior most position. Regarding gender, the analysis shows that research output of female returnee PhDs in the engineering field, in spite of them being small in number, is higher than that of male returnee PhDs. Implications of these insights are discussed to inform policies aimed toward incentivizing return of foreign PhDs to developing countries.     

工业4.0及德国高校创新创业的探索

介绍了作为工业4.0重要技术支撑的物联信息系统(CPS)的数字转换,及其对日常生活和企业生产理念及经济发展的影响.通过信息技术,可以在各个领域的设计上有所改变,从小的如手机、手表、眼镜、戒指等,大的乃至工业车间的生产线,它们都是具有数字化转换潜力的,由此可以创立更多的信息制造业.创业有多个阶段,各个阶段都需要不同的指导.先是形成一个想法,然后进行筛选与优化,最后才可以达到商业上的成功.把握好数字转换将会更好地应对未来制造业的变化.     

Correction to: Indicator system for managing science,technology and innovation in universities

This study investigated the external contributors of library and information science (LIS) knowledge who were unaffiliated with LIS-related institutions but published their research results in LIS journals. Differences between the contributors to library science (LS) and contributors to information science (IS) were considered. Articles published in 39 strongly LIS-oriented journals indexed in the Web of Science database between 2005 and 2014 were analyzed. The results demonstrated that 46.5% of the LIS articles were written by at least one non-LIS author; authors’ backgrounds ranged across 29 disciplines. An increasing trend was observed in degrees of interdisciplinarity of LS and IS. An increase in proportion of articles by LIS and non-LIS authors was identified in LS and IS as well. Those with medical backgrounds were the primary non-LIS authors contributing to the LS field and collaborated the most frequently with LIS authors. Those with computer science backgrounds were the most prevalent non-LIS contributors to the IS field and preferred to publish individually. A critical difference was also identified in research topics between LS and IS. The foundations of LIS and scientometrics were the largest research topics in LS and IS, respectively.     

The three cultures in American science: publication productivity in physics,history and economics

Scientometrics - In 1959 Lord Charles Percy Snow delivered a scathing critique of the bifurcation of scientists into two cultures: The humanists and the natural scientists. Five decades later,...     

Highly cited non-journal publications in political science,economics and psychology: a first exploration

In this study we show that it is possible to identify top-cited publications other than Web of Science (WoS) publications, particularly non-journal publications, within fields in the social and behavioral sciences. We analyzed references in publications that were themselves highly cited, with at least one European address. Books represent between 62 (psychology) and 81% (political science) of the non-WoS references, journal articles 15–24%. Books (economics, political science) and manuals (psychology) account for the most highly cited publications. Between 50 (psychology, political science) and 71% (economics) of the top-ranked most cited publications originated from the US versus between 18 (economics) and 38% (psychology) from Europe. Finally, it is discussed how the methods and procedures of the study can be optimized.     

Complexity-based quality indicators for human and social capital in science and research: the case of Serbian Homeland versus Diaspora

Scientometrics - We developed quality indicators model for measuring human and social capital in the scientific and research communities, grounded in the complexity science. The model was...     

The law of limited excellence: publication productivity of Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences

The present paper extends Lotka’s theorem—which we rename as “the law of limited excellence”—while empirically modelling the scientific productivity of 46 Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences—a group best described as ‘Star Scientists’. By focusing on this highly selective group we expose unequal scientific productivity even amongst Israel’s most prolific scientists. Specifically, we test the invariance of Lotka’s law by focusing attention on the extreme tail of publication distributions while empirically exploring the non-linearity of its seemingly “flat” tail. By exposing the rarity of excellence even in this extreme end of publication productivity we extend the generality of Lotka’s theorem and expose that—like a fractal—the tail of excellence behaves as the entire distribution. We end this empirical contribution by suggesting a few implications for research and policy.     

The relationship between international editorial board composition and citation measures in political science,business, and genetics journals

Three measures of international composition on journal editorial boards - the number of countries represented on the board, the number of international members, and the proportion of international board members - were correlated with impact factor and total citation data in the 1999 Journal Citation Reportsfor 153 business, political science, and genetics journals. With a few exceptions the relationship between international editorial board composition and citation measures was non-linear, leading to the conclusion that international membership on the editorial board can not generally be used as a marker of better journal quality. Yet further investigation is warranted due to positive correlations between some editorial board and citation measures for non-U.S. business and political science journals. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Holy Grail of science policy: Exploring and combining bibliometric tools in search of scientific excellence

Evaluation studies of scientific performance conducted during the past years more and more focus on the identification of research of the 'highest quality', 'top' research, or 'scientific excellence'. This shift in focus has lead to the development of new bibliometric methodologies and indicators. Technically, it meant a shift from bibliometric impact scores based on average values such as the average impact of all papers published by some unit to be evaluated towards indicators reflecting the topof the citation distribution, such as the number of 'highly cited' or 'top' articles. In this study we present a comparative analysis of a number of standard and new indicators of research performance or 'scientific excellence', using techniques applied in studies conducted by CWTS in recent years. It will be shown that each type of indicator reflects a particular dimension of the general concept of research performance. Consequently, the application of one single indicator only may provide an incomplete picture of a unit's performance. It is argued that one needs to combine the various types of indicators in order to offer policy makers and evaluators valid and useful assessment tools. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A mathematical approach to assess research diversity: operationalization and applicability in communication sciences,political science,and beyond

Scientometrics - With today’s research production and global dissemination, there is growing pressure to assess how academic fields foster diversity. Based on a mathematical problem/solve...