16th Annual Conference of Gesellschaft für Hochschulforschung (Sept 2021)
Arlette Jappe and Thomas Heinze contributed a paper to the 16th Annual Conference of the "Gesellschaft für Hochschulforschung" (GfHf), Sept 2021.
Professionalism of bibliometric research evaluation using the example of the Netherlands and Italy
Abstract: This presentation describes the construction and use of bibliometric information in the evaluation of university research in the Netherlands and Italy. The selection of these two cases is based on an extensive meta-analysis of bibliometric evaluation practices in Europe in the period 2005-2019, investigating which methods can be considered as de facto standards of bibliometric quality measurement and which social actors defined these standards. Beyond the methods of bibliometric information gathering, the paper also addresses the question of systematic control effects inherent in the institutional design of the respective university evaluation procedures. Our thesis is that the Netherlands and Italy can be considered opposite cases, both in terms of the professional development of evaluative bibliometrics, and in terms of respect for higher education autonomy within the regularly recurring evaluation process. Actors in German higher education research and policy can learn from the comparison of these two neighboring European countries about the successful use of bibliometric data to support the quality development of university research and about the problems that can arise if evaluation procedures are institutionalized too rigidly.
18th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics (July 2021)
Thomas Heinze and Joel E. Fuchs contributed two papers and one poster to the 18th Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI), July 2021.
10th EUSPRI Conference (June 2021)
Arlette Jappe and Thomas Heinze contributed a paper to the 10th Conference of the "European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation" (EUSPRI), 10.-11.6.2021.
Effects of funding on the stratification of universities. Comparing Europe with the United States
Abstract: This paper argues that stratified structures in university systems should be addressed more explicitly in debates on research funding in the context of higher education (HE). Is a steeply stratified academic system with a stable set of distinguished elite institutions the best answer to the growing demand for knowledge in democratic and globalized societies? The paper connects findings from three streams of literature: (a) network analysis in quantitative science studies, (b) resource concentration in the US-American HE system, and (c) research to construct and analyse a common database for European higher education institutions (HEIs). The literature on US-American research universities reveals a crystalline hierarchy with intense competition for scientific talent at the top but little opportunity for upward institutional and personal mobility. We conclude that while there seem to be large cumulative advantages in terms of research output and prestige to be gained by differentiating a segment of outstanding elite organizations, rich-core ordering as characteristic of the US-American system also presents challenges for the role of science in liberal democracies: intellectual closure through control of faculty positions by a small number of central HEIs, and social closure through a failure to significantly expand the supply of the best research-based education to meet increasing demand.
