Valutare la qualità scientifica dei prodotti della ricerca sociologica: una proposta

• Main Author: Alberto Baldissera
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2008-08-01
• Series: Quaderni di Sociologia
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/qds/866

To establish criteria for assessing the quality of sociological research products is a difficult task. There are in fact many sociologies, pursuing different purposes. In the process of evaluating sociological products, one can identify several phases.The following are the most important:i) the assessment of the degree of recognition and visibility of the scientific production by the scientific community. Several bibliometrical indicators can be used for that purpose.ii) the formulation of a judgment on the quality of the research products considered, i.e. the contribution they provided to the body of sociological knowledge.The contribution may include: the introduction of new concepts, terms, classifications and typologies; the development of new theories of interpretation of social action; the innovation in research techniques; the introduction of new theories and hypothesis, the presentation of new syntheses; the recasting of available knowledge. Finally, the main results of sociological research: the increased transparency provided to social phenomena; the individuation or solution of problems of a specific community, the development of elegant, convincing and empirically founded explanations of social phenomena.I discuss finally some possible objections to this proposal.