Evaluating scholarly publications

Photo: Todd Chandler

Evaluation of research and publications at universities and research departments is an important part of today's university world; the evaluation is carried out by university administration, single researchers and external evaluators, to mention some.

What is being evaluated?

Countries, universities, research teams, scientific fields, connections between researchers, journals, citation practices

How is the evaluation done?

By qualitative (JUFO, expert assessment) and quantitative methods (measuring citations, various indicators (impact factor, h-index), ranking lists, bibliographies)

Why is this an important topic?

The volume and quality of research is a basis for allocating basic funding for the universities in Finland, and a researcher might need different metrics also when applying for a job or a grant.

Bibliometrics is the scientific field concerned with measuring scholarly publications, authors and citations.

​Bibliometric analysis focuses on the amount of publications and the number of citations they have received, as evidence of their academic value. 

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Research evaluation shapes and directs research and the entire research community should take responsibility for the principles and practices of researcher evaluation. Various indicators and metrics have a place and a value, but they also can be narrow and limited measures and should not be used in isolation.

Recommendations and declarations for responsible metrics:

Online resources:
University of Oulu: Evaluation based on scientific publishing

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