Research Performance Of Universities Research Articles

How do new university presidents affect research performance? Measuring the impact of pervious career paths in China

Who will be more beneficial to the research performance of public universities, an externally recruited president or one promoted from the inside? Data on 392 president successions appointed at Chinese public universities during the timeframe 2000–2019 show that outsider presidents on average make a more positive contribution than ones hailing from within. More particularly, this outsider premium is amplified for younger presidents or for those with advanced work experience, whereas this premium appears to be reduced for presidents transferred from university located far away or for those lacking social ties with the recruiting university. In this study, theories of organizational adaptation and disruption in public universities were leveraged to generate findings which can assist Chinese universities in selecting the most suitable president to maximize research performance. Additionally, this study offers insights into the global implications of these findings.

Do funding modes matter? A multilevel analysis of funding allocation mechanisms on university research performance

Abstract Over the last decades, most EU countries have profoundly reshaped their public research funding systems by shifting from traditional institutional block-funding towards more project-based mechanisms. The main rationale underlying this evolution builds on the assumption that project funding would foster research performance through the introduction of competitive allocation mechanisms. In contrast with the general increase of project funding, evidence is mixed regarding a positive effect of competitive funding mechanisms on research performance, as some studies find a positive impact, other a negative one or no impact. Differences also appear across studies regarding research actors, funding streams, and research outputs considered. This article integrates these different approaches through a multilevel design gathering funding inputs for 10 countries and 148 universities between 2011 and 2019 and assesses their impact on the quantity and quality of publications. Results highlight no impact of national and university-level competitive funding mechanisms on universities highly cited publications and no clear effect on the quantity of publications.

The Impact of International Exchange and Cooperation on The Scientific Research Performance of Local Universities

In order to comprehensively analyze the impact of international exchange and cooperation on the scientific research performance of local universities, based on the provincial panel data from 2009 to 2020, the dynamic panel data model is used to empirically analyze the relationship between international exchange and cooperation and the scientific research performance of local universities. The results show that international education and cooperation have a positive impact on the scientific research performance of local universities, and this promotion effect has heterogeneity among universities in different regions. Knowledge exchange and interaction positively affect the relationship between international education and cooperation and scientific research performance of local universities. Therefore, local universities should further expand the scope of international science and technology and exchange and cooperation under the background of national innovation-driven, establish a new mechanism conducive to scientific research innovation and talent exchange and introduction, promote the circulation and sharing of innovative resources, and realize the high output of scientific research in universities.

Performance-based research funding: Evidence from the largest natural experiment worldwide

A performance-based research funding system (PRFS) is a nationwide incentive scheme that promotes and rewards university research performance through competition for government funding. The UK’s PRFS, currently the Research Excellence Framework (REF), is considered the oldest, largest and most developed payment-by-results system in academia worldwide. Surprisingly, and despite the strong criticisms, little has been done to quantitatively and casually evaluate the intended and unintended effects of the PRFSs. In this paper, we evaluate the incremental impact of the REF 2014 in the fields of Economics and Business. We use a synthetic control method to compare the performance of UK universities with their artificial counterfactual units constructed using data from US universities. Our analysis shows, on the whole, that the introduction of the REF had a significant and positive impact on the quantity and quality of the scientific research produced at UK universities. However, we do not find a significant effect on the per author measures, suggesting that the REF did not result in an increase in research productivity. We also show that the effects are more heterogeneous across universities than across academic disciplines. We do not find evidence of a shift of research focus from Economics to Business topics, as some feared. But our analysis indicates that the REF 2014 may have contributed to the concentration of research excellence in elite institutions.

Evaluation of Scientific Research in Universities Based on the Theories for Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Under the background of insufficient scientific research funding, evaluating the level of scientific research from the perspective of sustainable development is necessary. The study aims to develop an evaluation index system based on the theories for sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), which could be used to evaluate the sustainable development trend of scientific research in universities. In this study, 42 world-class universities in China are used as examples to calculate their SCA performance in scientific research using the entropy and equal weights methods. The scores of scientific research in different universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2021 are used to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation index system. The results show that the evaluation index system can effectively predict the scientific research performance of universities in the future. It could be deduced from the results that universities with better scientific research performance meet the needs of the external market better and have more valuable, rare, imitable, and ambiguous resources but a lower level of scientific research dynamic ability. The evaluation index system makes up for the lack of emphasis on the potential scientific research capacity of the university in the current evaluation methods. It can help university administrators formulate relevant scientific research management regulations.

Assessing the Research Performance of the Iranian Medical Academics and Universities: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Implementing bibliometric indicators is the most prominent way to quantify the current status of research performance. This study aimed to map out the research performance of Iranian medical academics and universities in 2020 and determine its progress from 2016. Data were extracted from the Iranian scientometric information database and universities' scientometric information database. Then, the data were analyzed to provide descriptive statistics of bibliometric indicators. Besides, the association between the research productivity of academics or universities with their background characteristics was investigated using Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and chi-square tests. Iranian medical academics had extensive research productivity from 2016 to 2020, leading to 2.5-fold increase in their median number of papers. The research productivity was heterogeneous among the academics, with an H-index ranging from 0 to 98, and a median of 4. The research productivity was different by gender, academic position, general field of study, and academic degree. The class 1 universities had a higher quantity in research performance; however, there was no difference in quality-related indices comprising citations per paper ratio and high impact publication rate (SJR Q1) among different university classes. The median international collaboration rate has followed a growing trend in recent years and was 17% in 2020. There is a remarkable growth in the research productivity of Iranian academics and universities. Iranian research community historically had rare international research collaborations; however, promising growth is shown in this regard. To maintain the growth in research productivity, the country should increase research and development expenditure, address gender disparities, supply universities that are lagging behind, facilitate further international collaboration, and support national journals to be indexed in the international citation databases.

Higher education research performance parameters classified by systems theory: antecedents for the development of assessment models

PurposeThis paper aims to identify and classify the parameters that construct the input, processes, output, productivity and outcome variables that affect performance. These parameters are used in the evaluation model to measure research performance in universities so that they can be used as the basis for making leadership policies both at the national and institutional levels.Design/methodology/approachThe design of this research is a quantitative research method using a survey questionnaire that was sent to the heads of research institutions at universities in Indonesia. To obtain these parameters, a test for determining the value of the loading factor was used.FindingsThe authors found that input variable parameters consisted of 10 parameters; process variable consisted of 22 parameters; output variable parameters consisted of 8 parameters; productivity variable consisted of 4 parameters; and outcome variable parameters consisted of 10 parameters.Originality/valueOne approach to obtain parameters is through systems theory, where every element that makes up the organization contributes to the achievement of goals. This study attempted to develop parameters in the performance appraisal model of systems theory-based research institutions that are adapted to trends in the direction of research in universities. These parameters are based on aspects of input, process, output, productivity and outcome.

Funding and University Performance: An Econometric Analysis of the Indian Public Universities

Underpinning the aim of India’s National Education Policy, 2020 to devise a performance-based funding mechanism, it is pertinent to examine the impact of existing financial support on the university’s performance. Using a fixed panel data analysis, the present study investigates the influence of funding on the performance of Indian public universities over the period 2016-2020. The funding is considered in terms of the plan and non-plan grants received by universities from the central government, while performance is measured using performance parameters given by National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2021. Controlling the age, size and ownership type of university, findings reveal a significantly positive impact of funding on teaching performance, research performance and graduation outcomes of government-owned universities. Surprisingly, university’s outreach, inclusivity and peer perception have been observed to be indifferent towards central grants. Overall, the study provides valuable insights to university practitioners and policymakers for future development of the performance-funding mechanism.

How reliable are unsupervised author disambiguation algorithms in the assessment of research organization performance?

Abstract Assessing the performance of universities by output to input indicators requires knowledge of the individual researchers working within them. Although in Italy the Ministry of University and Research updates a database of university professors, in all those countries where such databases are not available, measuring research performance is a formidable task. One possibility is to trace the research personnel of institutions indirectly through their publications, using bibliographic repertories together with author names disambiguation algorithms. This work evaluates the goodness-of-fit of the Caron and van Eck, CvE unsupervised algorithm by comparing the research performance of Italian universities resulting from its application for the derivation of the universities’ research staff, with that resulting from the supervised algorithm of D’Angelo, Giuffrida, and Abramo (2011), which avails of input data. Results show that the CvE algorithm overestimates the size of the research staff of organizations by 56%. Nonetheless, the performance scores and ranks recorded in the two compared modes show a significant and high correlation. Still, nine out of 69 universities show rank deviations of two quartiles. Measuring the extent of distortions inherent in any evaluation exercises using unsupervised algorithms, can inform policymakers’ decisions on building national research staff databases, instead of settling for the unsupervised approaches.

Research and knowledge transfer performance in Colombian universities

This study analyzes the performance of Colombian universities in their research and knowledge transfer (KT) objectives in the period 2016–2018. The methodology was based on Data Envelopment Analysis models with Variable Return Scale and a Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) using different combinations of variables, considering the sensitivity of performance according to the type of variables used for its measurement. The results allowed us to identify significant gaps in research output among the studied universities. Publications and patents are the main variables that influence these differences in university performance and impact their scores. On the other hand, the MPI analysis made it possible to identify that most of the universities with the most significant improvements in the analyzed period correspond to private universities, and it was possible to recognize the importance of institutional efforts and strategies as an explanatory factor for progress in the performance of universities in the studied objectives. The results obtained formed the starting point for the discussion about the implications of some incentive policies at the national and institutional level for academic production. We also refer to the KT opportunities for Colombian universities and the measures required to promote their development.

Research on the Growth Experience of Presidents and Scientific Research Performance of Top Universities in China

More than half of the presidents in top universities of China have been grown up in their original universities. According to the upper echelon theory, the “indigenization” characteristics of university presidents will have an impact on their cognitive level and thus affect the scientific research performance of universities. Based on data from the National Natural Science Fund Projects and the National Social Science Fund Projects of China from 2007 to 2016, as well as individual characteristics of presidents, this paper empirically investigates the influence of the growth experience of presidents in 115 “Project 211” universities on scientific research performance. The results show that the presidents who grow up from the original universities have a significant negative impact on national fund projects, especially on the national natural science foundation projects. This paper suggest that the reason maybe the insufficient motivation and less access to external resources for native presidents. Some corresponding policy recommendations are proposed for this purpose.

Development and Test of Survey Scale for University Humanities and Social Sciences Teachers’ Satisfaction with Scientific Research Performance Evaluation Mechanism

Scale of satisfaction with the scientific research performance evaluation mechanism of humanities and social sciences in universities was developed to investigate the current teachers’ satisfaction with the scientific research performance evaluation mechanism of humanities and social sciences in universities, and to identify the problems in the scientific research performance evaluation mechanism of humanities and social sciences in universities in order to promote targeted improvements in universities, and further improve the scientific research performance evaluation mechanism of humanities and social sciences in universities. In developing the scale, the initial scale was compiled on the relevant literature and semi-structured interviews. The scale was developed through the steps of item development, draft scale development, expert validity establishment, data collection of pre-test scale, item analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The quality of the scale was assessed through reliability test and validity test. The scale includes two key dimensions: evaluation mechanism elements and evaluation mechanism operation. The scale provides a feasible tool for the measurement of satisfaction with the evaluation mechanism of university humanities and social sciences research performance, proposes a new perspective for the study of the evaluation mechanism of university humanities and social sciences research performance, and expands new ideas for comprehensive understandings of the evaluation mechanism of university humanities and social sciences research performance.

Evaluating Research Efficiency in Indonesian Higher Education Institution.

The Indonesian government has evaluated the research performance of universities, whose measurement process is projected into resources, management, outputs, and revenues to determine the provision of incentives, grants, and program funding to universities. However, efficiency calculations have shown that the outputs and competition-based incentives that drive scientific productivity are more complex. The most competitive systems must also be the most productive when considering resources. This study aimed to analyze the research efficiency in the Indonesian higher education system. The efficiency was analyzed by maximizing the 13 product outputs from the research budget and university staff. The result was then compared with the existing performance measurement analysis. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the efficiency based on the data of 47 universities in the Mandiri cluster and 144 in the Utama cluster for the 2014-2018 period. These findings showed that about 68% of universities have an efficiency value of 1 for the Mandiri group, almost 40% in the Utama group, and 41% for the two groups combined. Additionally, this study compared the efficiency analysis and the impact of the performance evaluation. The comparison showed that adding efficiency or productivity factors in the performance evaluation assessment produced a more accurate result.

Is it necessary to evaluate university research performance instrument? Evidence from Indonesia

Is it necessary to evaluate university research performance instrument? Evidence from Indonesia

Global and Local Research Excellence in Africa: New Perspectives on Performance Assessment and Funding

The concept ‘research excellence’ remains ill-defined in performance assessment and science funding frameworks. This article introduces a framework that distinguishes ‘global excellence’ and ‘local excellence’, which enable a better understanding of ‘research excellence’ in African science. Where global excellence is primarily determined by acknowledged visibility and partially measurable reputation within the (inter)national scholarly community, its local counterpart relates to utilisation of knowledge and know-how among non-scholarly users and communities. Our empirical study of global excellence, based on a citation impact analysis of ‘basic research’ publications during the past 15 years, with one or more African-based authors, shows a large degree of dependence on and cooperation with non-African international partners. More detailed analysis of research-active universities in the African Research Universities Alliance also highlights their large dependency on international resources and funding in their highly cited ‘globally excellent’ research. Our analysis of local excellence focusses on the research objectives of the centres of excellence at universities in sub-Saharan Africa, showing a mix of local and global components. The notion of local excellence is in need of appropriate definitions and further operationalisation. The distinction between global and local excellence, within science funding and research assessment frameworks, offers a more comprehensive view and better understanding of high-end research performance of universities in Africa. Developing quality criteria and performance indicators of local excellence may incentivise researchers to contribute to socio-economic development and innovation.

Intelligent Educational Evaluation of Research Performance between Digital Library and Open Government Data

This study evaluates institutional research performance in benchmark technological universities in Taiwan through intelligent research databases (SciVal) in digital libraries with Ministry of Education open data to explore the performance of research indicators and the research trend of topic clusters to ascertain accountability for decision makers. The research performance of eight benchmark technological universities in Taiwan is compared in this study. In addition, the trends in research topics in the top 10% of journals are explored. Descriptive statistics, correlation, ANOVA, and the Boston Consulting Group matrix were used in this study. Research personnel, publications, productivity, total citations, number of international collaborations, and academic research income in 2018 significantly positively correlated with each other. From 719 records of research topics, topic clusters and school types are the significant factors in research outputs. Biosensors, electrodes, and voltammetry are the leading topic clusters in the research trend. The topic cluster of decision-making, fuzzy sets, and models has the best growth rate in the SciVal results. This analysis provides useful insights to policymakers to improve institutional administration and research resource allocation.

Study on university research performance based on systems theory: systematic literature review

This paper reports on the systematic literature (SLR) to synthesise research on university research performance using a systematic methodology. We carried out a rigorous screening process to obtain a final sample of 59 quality papers published in 33 journals. These studies have been reviewed with a systems theory-based perspective in organisations, without neglecting to review several matters relating to significant journal publications, active researchers, the most widely used methods, and the countries where they are located. Finally, we provide suggestions for further research on research performance, especially those related to the influencing input-process-output-productivity-outcome variables. This perspective provides an effective fit with the context of research performance measurement models in universities and helps to capture the full spectrum of research institutes in universities. Thus, a new challenge arises to develop a national performance evaluation model in higher education research institutions that is adapted to the policies and strategies of each country.

Research performance of South Asian University: A three-dimensional approach

This paper evaluates the research productivity of South Asian University with a three-dimensional approach. The total number of recorded publications during 2011 to 2021 was 1175 with a mean of 9.07 citations per paper. Article contributed 60% of the total publications. The h index, m quotient and z index of the university was observed to be 45, 4.09 and 23.75 respectively during the study period. P.K. Muhuri was found to be the most prominent author with 97 papers and h index 19. Furthermore, H Pandey has achieved the highest impact of 31.83 and highest z index 19.84. Economics & Political Weekely was the most preferred journal along with other scientific journals. Bradford's law does not fit the dataset. Among the various subjects Computer Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences were the most researched areas.

Reshaping How Universities Can Evaluate the Research Impact of Open Humanities for Societal Benefit

During the twenty-first century, for the first time, the volume of digital data has surpassed the amount of analog data. As academic practices increasingly become digital, opportunities arise to reshape the future of scholarly communication through more accessible, interactive, open, and transparent methods that engage a far broader and more diverse public. Yet despite these advances, the research performance of universities and public research institutes remains largely evaluated through publication and citation analysis rather than by public engagement and societal impact. This article reviews how changes to bibliometric evaluations toward greater use of altmetrics, including social media mentions, could enhance uptake of open scholarship in the humanities. In addition, the article highlights current challenges faced by the open scholarship movement, given the complexity of the humanities in terms of its sources and outputs that include monographs, book chapters, and journals in languages other than English; the use of popular media not considered as scholarly papers; the lack of time and energy to develop digital skills among research staff; problems of authority and trust regarding the scholarly or non-academic nature of social media platforms; the prestige of large academic publishing houses; and limited awareness of and familiarity with advanced digital applications. While peer review will continue to be a primary method for evaluating research in the humanities, a combination of altmetrics and other assessment of research impact through different data sources may provide a way forward to ensure the increased use, sustainability, and effectiveness of open scholarship in the humanities.

The different responses of universities to introduction of performance-based research funding

Abstract Governments and organizations design performance-based research funding systems (PBRFS) for strategic aims, such as to selectively allocate scarce resources and stimulate research efficiency. In this work, we analyze the relative change in research productivity of Italian universities after the introduction of such a system, featuring financial and reputational incentives. Using a bibliometric approach, we compare the relative research performance of universities before and after the introduction of PBRFS, at the overall, discipline and field levels. The findings show convergence in the universities’ performance, due above all to the remarkable improvement of the lowest performers. Geographically, the universities of the south (vs central and northern Italy) achieved the greatest improvement in relative performance. The methodology, and results, should be of use to university management and policy-makers.