Valutazione della ricerca

Francesco Sylos Labini

Centro Fermi & ISC-CNR Roma

http://ricercatorialberi.blogspot.com/

http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/blog/flabini/

http://ricercatorialberi.blogspot.com1

Valutazione

http://ricercatorialberi.blogspot.com/

http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/blog/flabini/

•How should Research be Organised? Donald Gillies, College Publication, 2008

•Economics and Research Assessment Systems Donald Gillies, In the press, 2011

•La Scienza Malata? Come la burocrazia soffoca la ricerca Laurent Ségalat, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2010

•Du bon usage de la bibliométrie pour l’évalutation individuelle des chercheurs Institut de France, Académie de sciences, 2010

•Valutare la ricerca scientifica, Uso ed abuso degli indicatori bibliometrici Alberto Baccini, Il Mulino, 2010

Bibliografia essenziale

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Valutazione: problema chiave

Se una ipotetica commissione che avesse dovuto

decidere del finanziamento di un “progetto” al

tempo T0 che poi ha portato al “Nobel” al tempo

T1>T0, ed avesse applicato un dato criterio (ad

esempio metrico) avrebbe preso la decisione

giusta?

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Prevedere il futuro …..


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Analisi dei criteri di valutazione da un punto di vista storico


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•Top 5%

•Spazio alle fluttuazioni (50%)

•Finanziamento a pioggia (100%)

Strategie per la divisione della torta

La competizione è il motore della ricerca ?

“…. Nella ricerca conta solo l' eccellenza: ciò che non è eccellente non lascia traccia nella Storia.”

(Francesco Giavazzi, 22.11.2004, Corriere della Sera)

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The two papers in Science 2004 and Nature 2005 are the most cited papers on graphene … The Science paper has also been acknowledged as “one of the

most cited recent papers in the field of Physics”.

2010


A Research Assessment System (or RAS) is a system in which groups of researchers are assessed at intervals. If the assessment is good, the group retains its funding or gets more, while, if the assessment is bad, the

group’s funds are reduced or perhaps removed altogether.

Research Assessment Exercise

• RAE introduced by Thatcher in 1986

•RAEs are carried out every few years in all the universities of the UK.

•Committee of assessors (academics) in each subject.

•The department submits the selected papers to the assessment committee.

•Committee study this research output and grade the department


•The departments which score well on the RAE are provided with research funds.

•Those which don’t score so well are provided with much smaller funds for research

•The members of such departments have to spend more time on teaching.

•Recently there have even been moves in some universities to close altogether departments which perform badly on the RAE


•RAE is a costly operation.

•Professional administrators (extra administrative staff)

•Extra work involved in the RAE (the time of academics also costs money, this too adds to the cost of the RAE).


The question then naturally arises as to whether this expensive procedure has

actually improved the research produced in the UK. Strange to say this

question is rarely asked: Could it be making the research output of the UK

worse instead of better?

•Peer review: the original RAE was based entirely on peer review.

•Biblio-metrics

Assessment of the value of the research work

•Mature natural sciences as ‘normal science’ same ‘paradigm’

•Scientific revolutions new paradigm.

•Social sciences -->competing schools with different paradigms

Single vs. multi-paradigm situation

(Economics and Research Assessment Systems Donald Gillies, In the press, 2011)

•Theoretical physics: relativity theory and quantum mechanics

•Economics: different schools with different political ideologies: Neo-Classical Economics, the various versions of Keynesianism, and Marxist Economics.

Physics vs Economics


My claim is that the research work of the members of whichever school has the largest number of members will receive the highest

valuation. So if school A is in the majority, the members of school A will receive the highest valuation. If school B is in the majority, then

the members of school B will receive the highest valuation, and so on.

If a Research Assessment System is applied to such a community, what result will it give?


http://www.letteraapertavalutazionericerca.it/17

http://ricercatorialberi.blogspot.com 18

http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1008.1586

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E’ possibile fare una classifica di scienziati (o dei progetti di ricerca) come se si trattasse di tennisti ?

Valutazione: strumenti bibliometrici



“Before we develop a pseudoscience of citation analysis, we should remind ourselves that what matters absolutely is the scientific content of a paper and that nothing will substitute for either

knowing it or reading it. We should also recognize that citation often tells us more about the sociology

of than about the science itself”

Sydney Brenner “Citation Science”

Science 3 July 1998: Vol. 281 no. 5373 p. 53

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Valutazione: fisici


Valutazione: economisti

Valutazione delle chiacchere

•Campi con diversi paradigmi

•Campi in cui i soggetti non sono “universali” (o globali)

•Campi interdisciplinari

•Campi applicativi

Aspetti critici (ed irrisolti)

Conclusioni

•Valutare è necessario ma molto delicato

•Cultura della valutazione

•Ogni campo ha una storia a sé

•E’ difficile valutare chi lavora

•E’ facile identificare chi non lavora

Valutazione della ricerca

Education

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