About this Research Topic
To interrogate the conundrum between quantity and quality in research evaluation, some researchers dwell on rigorous and complementary indicators of a scientist's performance by critically analyzing a plethora of scientometric data. Others have argued that the scientific performance of an individual or group must be evaluated by peer-review processes based on their impact in their respective fields or the originality, strength, reproducibility, and relevance of their publications. Nevertheless, scientific project reviews, grant funding decisions, and university career advancement steps are often based on decisive input from non-experts who can readily use bibliometric indices. As a consequence, the newer and more robust tools or methods that consider the normalization of bibliometric indicators by the field and other influential parameters are encouraged to be shared and embraced by the research community, universities, and funding agencies. In addition, it is vital to investigate newly developed indicators or proposed quantitative methods for quality analysis and find out whether high quantity also implies high quality/significance/reputation. The role of peer review or in-depth studies in highlighting the quality based on the originality, strength, reproducibility, and relevance of the publications is additionally essential when investigating the merits of metrics in research assessment.
In this Research Topic, we invite contributions from both academic and industry researchers from different disciplines that examine the responsible causes for the current system of evaluating research performance that favors the number of publications, citations, h-index, and JIF. We also welcome contributions on potential avenues for assessing the quality of research as well as scientists’ performance in various scientific fields.
Contributions can address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• innovative research indicators
• research quality assessment
• responsible research metrics
• normalization of scientometrics indices
• funding and financing
• peer-review and data mining for evaluating research quality
• research ethics related to assessing research
• responsible use of metrics policy.
Keywords: Conduct of Research, Metrics, Bibliometrics, Research Assessment Ethics, Research Evaluation, Research Quality, Responsible Research Metrics, Responsible Use of Research Policy, #CollectionSeries
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.