Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway
In this article I reflect on ways in which the neoliberal university and its administrative counterpart, new public management (NPM), affect academic publishing activity. One characteristic feature of NPM is the urge to use simple numerical indicators of research output as a tool to allocate fundin...
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2017-12-01
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doaj-e255dd0a9c4445669f9f7bde05f03cfe2020-11-25T03:39:54ZengGeographical Society of FinlandFennia: International Journal of Geography1798-56172017-12-01195210.11143/fennia.66602Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from NorwayMichael Richard Handley Jones In this article I reflect on ways in which the neoliberal university and its administrative counterpart, new public management (NPM), affect academic publishing activity. One characteristic feature of NPM is the urge to use simple numerical indicators of research output as a tool to allocate funding and, in practice if not in theory, as a means of assessing research quality. This ranges from the use of journal impact factors (IF) and ranking of journals to publication points to determine what types of work in publishing is counted as meritorious for funding allocation. I argue that it is a fallacy to attempt to assess quality of scholarship through quantitative measures of publication output. I base my arguments on my experiences of editing a Norwegian geographical journal over a period of 16 years, along with my experiences as a scholar working for many years within the Norwegian university system. https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/66602 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Michael Richard Handley Jones |
spellingShingle |
Michael Richard Handley Jones Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway Fennia: International Journal of Geography |
author_facet |
Michael Richard Handley Jones |
author_sort |
Michael Richard Handley Jones |
title |
Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway |
title_short |
Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway |
title_full |
Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway |
title_fullStr |
Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Can research quality be measured quantitatively? On quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from Norway |
title_sort |
can research quality be measured quantitatively? on quality of scholarship, numerical research indicators and academic publishing - experiences from norway |
publisher |
Geographical Society of Finland |
series |
Fennia: International Journal of Geography |
issn |
1798-5617 |
publishDate |
2017-12-01 |
description |
In this article I reflect on ways in which the neoliberal university and its administrative counterpart, new public management (NPM), affect academic publishing activity. One characteristic feature of NPM is the urge to use simple numerical indicators of research output as a tool to allocate funding and, in practice if not in theory, as a means of assessing research quality. This ranges from the use of journal impact factors (IF) and ranking of journals to publication points to determine what types of work in publishing is counted as meritorious for funding allocation. I argue that it is a fallacy to attempt to assess quality of scholarship through quantitative measures of publication output. I base my arguments on my experiences of editing a Norwegian geographical journal over a period of 16 years, along with my experiences as a scholar working for many years within the Norwegian university system.
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url |
https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/66602 |
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