Assessing Social Science Scholarship By Comparing Impact Factors - Kenneth Benoit
Outros
Ter . 29 Jun . 17h00
Polivalent Room
Assessing Social Science Scholarship By Comparing Impact Factors - Kenneth Benoit
Organized by Nina Wiesehomeier (ICS-UL), the International Conference Assessing Social Science Scholarship By Comparing Impact Factors with Kenneth Benoit from Trinity College, University of Dublin will be held June the 28th at 17h in ICS Polivalent Room.
Abstract: Against a background of the Irish government's concerns with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the British government's wishes for a more quantitative Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), this study conducts a relative impact assessment of the study of politics, government, political science, and international relations in Ireland.
Impact is measured as citations from the publications of permanent staff in eight Irish politics departments, based on data compiled in April 2008 from two leading academic indexes - ISI's Web of Science and Scopus - as well as the now popular Google Scholar. We discuss some of the criticisms that naturally arise in a study of this nature.
Then, following similar exercises in other disciplines (e.g. economics), we use the impact measures to compare and rank individual scholars as well as departments. While there are differences, in particular between indexes based purely on articles and those that access books and other material, the results from the different indexes are strongly correlated.
The corresponding publication can be found here:
http://www.esr.ie/Vol40_3/02Benoit.pdf
Abstract: Against a background of the Irish government's concerns with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the British government's wishes for a more quantitative Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), this study conducts a relative impact assessment of the study of politics, government, political science, and international relations in Ireland.
Impact is measured as citations from the publications of permanent staff in eight Irish politics departments, based on data compiled in April 2008 from two leading academic indexes - ISI's Web of Science and Scopus - as well as the now popular Google Scholar. We discuss some of the criticisms that naturally arise in a study of this nature.
Then, following similar exercises in other disciplines (e.g. economics), we use the impact measures to compare and rank individual scholars as well as departments. While there are differences, in particular between indexes based purely on articles and those that access books and other material, the results from the different indexes are strongly correlated.
The corresponding publication can be found here:
http://www.esr.ie/Vol40_3/02Benoit.pdf
Kenneth Benoit is currently Professor of Quantitative Social Sciences at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and Head of the Department of Political Science. He received his Ph.D. (1998) from Harvard University, Department of Government. His methodological interests include statistical methodologies for the social sciences especially those relating to measurement and quantitative text analysis.
Substantive research interests include comparative party competition, the European Parliament, electoral systems, and transitions to democracy. He has published extensively in the American Journal of Political Sciences, Political Analysis, Electoral Studies and Party Politics, among others..
