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Christian Woll
How can research performance be measured?
Proving research excellence is of great importance not only for research institutions and research groups, but also for the individual researcher. This applies not only to the regular evaluations on institutional level, but also to academic staff hiring, appointments, tenure, and awarding of grants. The question which indicators are best used to measure research performance is contested. Thus, research performance can be described with the help of a number of indicators, such as, for example, publications, citations, patents, appointments to other universities, awards, journal editorships or acquisition of third-party funds. This discussion paper will evaluate different indicators with regard to their suitability as performance indicators in the field of vocational education and training (VET) research, placing particular emphasis on bibliometric indicators (publications and citations). Thus, the main objective of this paper is to develop a set of indicators which can be used for bibliometric analyses in the area of VET research. It seems important in this context to devise a set of indicators broad enough to prevent researchers from (re)aligning their publication behaviour in a way that primarily aims at optimal performance in bibliometric analyses. In addition, the study aims to present a concept for a journal ranking in VET research.
Academic Research Discussion Paper issue 131 (in German)
Note: "Wissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere" (Academic Research Discussion Papers) are published by the president of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). They are published under the respective author's name and reflect the author's opinion and not necessarily the publisher's opinion. They are protected by copyright. Their publication aims to foster discussion in professional circles. "Wissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere" are published solely on the Internet.
