Measuring Scientific Performance – the Case of RSU

Description

The current method of assessing scientific performance (in RSU, in Latvia and eslewhere) is based mainly on the number of scientific outputs an individual has (co)-authored. This approach fails to acknowledge productivity of an author or collectively - of a group of authors. This results in a curious theoretic situation where a lab of 10 people producing collectively 1 article a year may receive the same recognition as a similar lab that collectively produces 10 articles a year. The objective is to use data from RSU to demonstrate the radically different results.. Data source: www.science.rsu.lv, collected by custom-made Python script. Data filtered to include only  type "1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database" since 2012.  All research units are grouped in divisions: Medicine, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), Other, and Unknown. Results are compared on individual, research-unit and division level - before and after fractionalisation of outputs.. Although some individuals and research units come as the most productive regardless of method, after fractionalisation SSH authors and research units can be demostred to be among the top performers at RSU despite their plain article count falling far below numbers of their Medical peers. The results demonstrate that currently employed measurement of academic output is ill-suited for measuring the actual output of individuals and research units. Fractionalised output calculation must be introduced in order to assess adequately the actual capacity of a unit and individual researchers . This conclusion is in line with that of Piro, Aksnes, and Rørstad (2013) who conclude that  in largest Norwegian universities the most productive units and individuals are in humanities, while the least productive - in medicine. Data also shows need to discuss taking in account different traditions regarding publications (e.g., publishing books in SSH vs publishing articles in natural sciences).

Period	29 Mar 2023
Event title	RSU Research week 2023: PLACES
Event type	Conference
Conference number	3
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Rīga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International