Incorporating the human factor in the study of universities

University evaluation is done, in part, by evaluating the papers produced by the university. However, universities don’t produce papers, right? People produce papers! In this blogpost we illustrate how you can use the number of papers produced by individuals to evaluate universities.

Juan Pablo Bascur Cifuentes and Rodrigo Costas • October 28, 2020

Publications should be FAIR

Scholarly data sets are increasingly expected to be FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). To fully realize the benefits of open access to the scholarly literature, Ludo Waltman argues that publications should be FAIR as well.

Ludo Waltman • October 26, 2020

Why is it so difficult to think of new possible worlds?

We are what we read, it is sometimes said. In this blogpost, Jackie Ashkin suggests what academics might read to inspire imaginations of a world that could be otherwise.

Jackie Ashkin • October 07, 2020 • 1 comment

Who benefits from science? A comment on Barry Bozeman’s ‘Public Value Science’

In a new article for Issues in S&T Barry Bozeman argues that current science policies benefit the rich more than the poor, thus reinforcing social inequalities. This blog post discusses his argument in the light of related views on how science can contribute to wider social well-being.

Ismael Rafols • September 22, 2020

Structuring Natural Language Processing Contributions in the Open Research Knowledge Graph

Next-generation digital libraries like the Open Research Knowledge Graph are here! Catering to which, we announce a Shared Task that builds scholarly contributions-focused graphs over Natural Language Processing (NLP) articles. Want to build a machine learner, we provide the data--join us!

Jennifer D'Souza • September 17, 2020

Where do scholars move? Measuring the mobility of researchers across academic institutions

The mobility of scientific human capital is a key channel for exchanging ideas and disseminating scientific knowledge. In this blog post, we demonstrate how scientometrics can help trace mobility patterns at the institutional level, using the Dimensions database.

Vít Macháček, Márcia R. Ferreira, Nicolás Robinson-García, Martin Srholec and Rodrigo Costas • September 03, 2020

Systematize information on journal policies and practices - A call to action

Recently the creators of Transpose and the Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies convened an online workshop on infrastructures that provide information on scholarly journals. In this blog post they look back at the workshop and discuss next steps.

Willem Halffman, Serge Horbach, Jessica Polka, Tony Ross-Hellauer and Ludo Waltman • August 31, 2020 • 2 comments

Evaluative Inquiry III: Mixing methods for evaluating research

Critiques on research metrics have produced an unhelpful divide between quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this blogpost, we explain why research evaluation can benefit from the strengths of both.

Tjitske Holtrop, Laurens Hessels and Ad Prins • August 21, 2020

Consensus and dissensus in ‘mappings’ of science for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A variety of ‘mappings’ of research on SDGs are being developed. A recent study shows that there are stark disagreements across some of these bibliometric ‘mappings’, raising concerns about their robustness. I argue here that this is due to different interpretations of the science relevant to SDGs.

Ismael Rafols • August 10, 2020