nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2010‒06‒04
two papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

  1. Intellectual In uence: Quality versus Quantity By László Á. Kóczy; Alexandru Nichifor; Martin Strobel
  2. Research standards for the Italian young academics: what has changed over the last thirty years? By Adriano Birolo; Annalisa Rosselli

  1. By: László Á. Kóczy (Óbuda University); Alexandru Nichifor; Martin Strobel
    Abstract: To take development and budgeting decisions for research activi- ties the ocials in charge need to constantly evaluate and assess the quality of research. Over the years a handful of scoring methods for academic journals have been proposed. Discussing the most prominent methods (de facto standards) we show that they cannot distinguish quality from quantity at article level and that they are inherently biased against journals publishing more articles. If we consider the length of a journal by the number of pages or characters, then all methods are biased against lengthier journals. The systematic bias we nd is analytically tractable and implies that the methods are ma- nipulable. We show that the strategies for successful manipulation are relatively easy to infer and implement. The implications of our ndings extend beyond the evaluation of academic research, to related settings like the ranking of web domains. Non-manipulable methods for measuring intellectual in uence exist.
    Keywords: scoring methods bias, ranking rules bias, impact factor, invariant method, LP method, invariance to article-splitting, quality and quantity in ranking academic journals; scoring methods bias, ranking rules bias, impact factor, invariant method, LP method, invariance to article-splitting, quality and quantity in ranking academic journals
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pkk:wpaper:1009.rdf&r=sog
  2. By: Adriano Birolo (University of Padua); Annalisa Rosselli (Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata")
    Abstract: In this paper the authors present the findings of their research on a vast database containing the relevant information on the scientific characteristics of the three cohorts of assistant professors recruited in Italy in the early 1980s, the 1990s and the first few years of the new millennium. Their first objective is to trace out the scientific profile of the assistant professor in the early 1980s and the changes that came about in the following twenty-five years due to general changes in the profession and in the specific conditions of the Italian academic market. The second aim is to se what turn in direction the scientific standard has taken for access to a career as a young professor of economics, the number and typology of publciations, the fields of reasearch.
    Keywords: Evolution of the scientific standard, research output, "representative" economist, academic market for economists, evaluation.
    JEL: A11 A B23 B41
    Date: 2010–05–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:161&r=sog

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