Research Assessment in the Humanities : Towards Criteria and Procedures / edited by Michael Ochsner, Sven E. Hug, Hans-Dieter Daniel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ochsner, Michael, Editor.

Contributor:

Ochsner, Michael, Editor.

Hug, Sven E., Editor.

Daniel, Hans-Dieter., Editor.

Series:

Education Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational tests and measurements.

Education, Higher.

Ethics.

Public administration.

Assessment and Testing.

Higher Education.

Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics.

Public Administration.

Local Subjects:

Assessment and Testing.

Higher Education.

Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics.

Public Administration.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XVIII, 247 pages) : illustrations, charts

Edition:

First edition 2016.

Place of Publication:

2016.

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2016.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file

Summary:

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access. This book analyses and discusses the recent developments for assessing research quality in the humanities and related fields in the social sciences. Research assessments in the humanities are highly controversial and the evaluation of humanities research is delicate. While citation-based research performance indicators are widely used in the natural and life sciences, quantitative measures for research performance meet strong opposition in the humanities. This volume combines the presentation of state-of-the-art projects on research assessments in the humanities by humanities scholars themselves with a description of the evaluation of humanities research in practice presented by research funders. Bibliometric issues concerning humanities research complete the exhaustive analysis of humanities research assessment. The selection of authors is well-balanced between humanities scholars, research funders, and researchers on higher education. Hence, the edited volume succeeds in painting a comprehensive picture of research evaluation in the humanities. This book is valuable to university and science policy makers, university administrators, research evaluators, bibliometricians as well as humanities scholars who seek expert knowledge in research evaluation in the humanities.

Contents:

Intro

Foreword

Contents

About the Contributors

List of Figures

List of Tables

Research Assessment in the Humanities: Introduction

1 Introduction

2 Structure of the Book

3 Synopsis, Outlook and Acknowledgements

References

Part I Setting Sail into Stormy Waters

The `Mesurer les Performances de la Recherche' Project of the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) and Its Further Development

2 Making a Variety of Research Visible

2.1 What Should We Evaluate in Research?

2.2 For What Purpose Should We Evaluate Research?

2.3 How Should We Evaluate Research?

2.4 Evaluation, Quality and Mission

3 The `Mesurer les Performances de la Recherche' Project

4 The `Performances de la Recherche en Sciences Humaines et Sociales' Programme

Yes We Should

Research Assessment in the Humanities

How Quality Is Recognized by Peer Review Panels: The Case of the Humanities

2 The Role of Informal Rules

3 The Impact of Evaluation Settings on Rules

4 Defining Originality

5 What Is an Original Approach?

6 Comparing the Humanities, History and the Social Sciences

7 Conclusion

Humanities Scholars' Conceptions of Research Quality

2 Framework

2.1 The Four Main Reservations About Tools and Procedures for Research Evaluation

2.2 The Four Pillars of Our Framework to Develop Sustainable Quality Criteria

2.3 The Implementation of the Framework: The Design of the Project `Developing and Testing Quality Criteria for Research in the Humanities'

3 Notions of Quality: The Repertory Grid Interviews

4 Consensual Quality Criteria: The Delphi Survey

5 Discussion: Notions of Quality at the Base of Assessment

6 Conclusion

References.

Part II The Current State of Quality-Based Publication Rankings and Publication Databases

The ESF Scoping Project `Towards a Bibliometric Database for the Social Sciences and Humanities'

Publication-Based Funding: The Norwegian Model

2 Component A: Delimitation and Collection of Data

3 Component B: Comparable Measurement

4 Component C: Incentives and Funding

5 Evaluations of Effects and Experiences

6 Discussion: The Norwegian Model from the Perspective of the Humanities

Assessment of Journal & Book Publishers in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Spain

2 Research Evaluation in Social Sciences and Humanities in Spain

3 Spanish Social Sciences and Humanities Journals' Indicators

4 Book Publishers Assessment

5 Publisher's Prestige

5.1 Scholarly Publishers Indicators

6 Conclusions

European Educational Research Quality Indicators (EERQI): An Experiment

1 General Outline: The EERQI Project

1.1 Motivation

1.2 The EERQI-Project

2 What EERQI Achieved

3 Conclusion

Part III Bibliometrics in the Humanities

Beyond Coverage: Toward a Bibliometrics for the Humanities

1.1 The Humanities

2 Bibliometric on the Humanities: A Short Recapitulation

2.1 Publication Patterns

2.2 Citing of Sources

2.3 The Language and Age of Cited Sources

3 In Pursuit of a Bibliometric for the Humanities

3.1 Book Citation Index

3.2 Non-source Items

3.3 Google Scholar, Google Book Search

3.4 Ad Hoc Databases

3.5 Library Catalogues

3.6 Book Reviews

3.7 Counting and Weighing Publications

3.8 Altmetric Approaches

4 Intellectual Organization of Research Fields and Its Bibliometric Consequences

4.1 Fragmented and Rural Research Fields.

4.2 Referencing Practices and Citation Patterns

5 Conclusions

5.1 Challenges

Quotation Statistics and Culture in Literature and in Other Humanist Disciplines

2 Quotation Culture in the Humanities

2.1 Characteristics of Quotations in the Humanities

2.2 Disapproval of Bibliometrics and of `Quantities' Per se

2.3 The European Reference Index for the Humanities

2.4 Rigor and Quotations

3 Low Quotation Frequencies in Literature

3.1 Materials and Methods

3.2 Results

3.3 Possible Objections

4 Discussion

Part IV Evaluation of Research in the Humanities in Practice

Peer Review in the Social Sciences and Humanities at the European Level: The Experiences of the European Research Council

1 The European Research Council's Mission

1.1 How Does the ERC Work?

1.2 European Added Value

2 Why Social Sciences and Humanities?

2.1 An Inclusive Approach

2.2 ERC Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities

3 What Are the Results?

4 Outlook

The Four `I's: Quality Indicators for the Humanities

1 Ranking Fever in Germany

2 The Reaction of the Humanities to the Ranking Fever

3 Quantity Instead of Quality: Current Methods of `Quality Assessment'

4 Quality Assessment within a Discipline: The Evaluation Culture in the Humanities

5 What Is Quality in the Humanities? Looking Back

6 The Critical Self-image of the Humanities

7 Quality Indicators: The Four `I's

8 Closing Remarks

Bottom Up from the Bottom: A New Outlook on Research Evaluation for the SSH in France

2 The Need for Evaluation in the Post-`loi LRU' Period

2.1 Human Resources

2.2 Funding

2.3 The National Grant System

3 Current Practices and Levels of Evaluation

4 DisValHum and IMPRESHS Projects.

5 Initial Outcomes

Part V The ‘Forschungsrating’ of the German Council of Science and Humanities. Risks and Opportunities for the Humanities: The Case of the Anglistik/Amerikanistik Pilot Study

Rating Research Performance in the Humanities: An Interim Report on an Initiative of the German Wissenschaftsrat

`21 Grams': Interdisciplinarity and the Assessment of Quality in the Humanities

1 Rating Research: Who Needs It, and What Is It Good For? (by Klaus Stiersdorfer)

2 `Weighing the Soul' of the Humanities (by Peter Schneck)

Research Rating Anglistik/Amerikanistik of the German Council of Science and Humanities

1 Research Rating in English and American Studies (by Veronika Khlavna and Alfred Hornung)

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Procedural Steps

1.3 Criteria

1.4 Conclusion and Outlook

2 Chairing the Research Rating of Anglistik/Amerikanistik (by Alfred Hornung)

3 Quo Vadis Anglistik? On Rating a Disintegrating Academic Field (by Barbara Korte)

Research Assessment in a Philological Discipline: Criteria and Rater Reliability

2 Assessing Research Quality in English Departments: Methods and Procedures

3 Reliability of the Ratings

3.1 Rater Reliability

3.2 Rating Variation Across Different Criteria

4 Rating Categories: What Do They Really Tell Us?

4.1 Criteria

4.2 Rating Dimensions

5 Summary and Discussion

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9783319290164 (PDF)

OCLC:

948632293