Overview
Why bibliometrics is useful for understanding the global dynamics of science but generate perverse effects when applied inappropriately in research evaluation and university rankings.The research evaluation market is booming. ""Ranking,"" ""metrics,"" ""h-index,"" and ""impact factors"" are reigning buzzwords. Government and research administrators want to evaluate everything-teachers, professors, training programs, universities-using quantitative indicators. Among the tools used to measure ""research excellence,"" bibliometrics-aggregate data on publications and citations-has become dominant. Bibliometrics is hailed as an ""objective"" measure of research quality, a quantitative measure more useful than ""subjective"" and intuitive evaluation methods such as peer review that have been used since scientific papers were first published in the seventeenth century. In this book, Yves Gingras offers a spirited argument against an unquestioning reliance on bibliometrics as an indicator of research quality. Gingras shows that bibliometric rankings have no real scientific validity, rarely measuring what they pretend to. Although the study of publication and citation patterns, at the proper scales, can yield insights on the global dynamics of science over time, ill-defined quantitative indicators often generate perverse and unintended effects on the direction of research. Moreover, abuse of bibliometrics occurs when data is manipulated to boost rankings. Gingras looks at the politics of evaluation and argues that using numbers can be a way to control scientists and diminish their autonomy in the evaluation process. Proposing precise criteria for establishing the validity of indicators at a given scale of analysis, Gingras questions why universities are so eager to let invalid indicators influence their research strategy.
Full Product Details
Author: Yves Gingras (Université du Québec à Montréal) ,
Michael Buckland (Professor Emeritus and Co-Director, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, University of California, Berkeley) ,
Jonathan Furner (UCLA) ,
Markus Krajewski (Professor of Media Studies, University of Basel)
Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
Imprint: MIT Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.318kg
ISBN: 9780262035125
ISBN 10: 026203512
Pages: 136
Publication Date: 07 October 2016
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Language: English
Reviews
...this is a great first read for anyone new to bibliometrics, and a great resource to anyone established in the field. * The Bibliomagician *
...this is a great first read for anyone new to bibliometrics, and a great resource to anyone established in the field. —The Bibliomagician
...this is a great first read for anyone new to bibliometrics, and a great resource to anyone established in the field. -The Bibliomagician
...this is a great first read for anyone new to bibliometrics, and a great resource to anyone established in the field. -The Bibliomagician ...this is a great first read for anyone new to bibliometrics, and a great resource to anyone established in the field. -The Bibliomagician * Reviews *
Author Information
Yves Gingras is Professor and Canada Research Chair in History and Sociology of Science, Department of History, at Universite du Quebec Montreal.
