ERIC Number: EJ1163435
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Oct
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0958-2029
EISSN: N/A
A Letter on Ancaiani et al. "Evaluating Scientific Research in Italy: The 2004-10 Research Evaluation Exercise"
Baccini, Alberto; De Nicolao, Giuseppe
Research Evaluation, v26 n4 p353-357 Oct 2017
This letter documents some problems in Ancaiani et al. (2015). Namely the evaluation of concordance, based on Cohen's kappa, reported by Ancaiani et al. was not computed on the whole random sample of 9,199 articles, but on a subset of 7,597 articles. The kappas relative to the whole random sample were in the range 0.07-0.15, indicating an unacceptable agreement between peer review and bibliometrics. The subset was obtained by non-random exclusion of all articles for which bibliometrics produced an uncertain classification; these raw data were not disclosed, so that concordance analysis is not reproducible. The VQR-weighted kappa for Area 13 reported by Ancaiani et al. is higher than that reported by Area 13 panel and confirmed by Bertocchi et al. (2015), a difference explained by the use, under the same name, of two different set of weights. Two values of kappa reported by Ancaiani et al. differ from the corresponding ones published in the official report. Results reported by Ancaiani et al. do not support a good concordance between peer review and bibliometrics. As a consequence, the use of both techniques introduced systematic distortions in the final results of the Italian research assessment exercise. The conclusion that it is possible to use both technique as interchangeable in a research assessment exercise appears to be unsound, by being based on a misinterpretation of the statistical significance of kappa values.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Scientific Research, Evaluation, Statistical Analysis, Bibliometrics, Research Problems, Peer Evaluation, Classification, Statistical Significance
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A