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Bibliometric assessments of research output quality within the HEFCE framework

In this thesis we propose a feasible bibliometric assessment framework of research output quality derived from the definition of research proposed by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Based on this basic framework, we show that research output can be assessed from two elements: significance of new insights and effectiveness of sharing based on the new insights. We investigate this issue from two levels: research publication's quality assessment and academic journal's quality assessment. With regard to measurement of research publications, we confirm citation information is accepted as a measure of effectiveness of sharing regardless of various reasons of citation behavior. On the other hand, we observe there are no sufficient studies on bibliometric indices for significance of new insights, based on information other than citations. In this thesis, we theoretically develop some non-citation based bibliometric measurements via utilizing journal characteristics (e.g. journal acceptance rate (JAR) or journal rejection rate (JRR)). Their strength and weakness are shown in our empirical studies. Furthermore, we believe a more complete assessment for research output quality can be achieved by combining information from the two elements. Several combination approaches such as function combination (i.e. production of two indicators) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach are proposed and testified on real data sets like the Association of "- Business School (ABS) journal ranking and Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Secondly, we utilize a part of the HEFCE framework for journal quality assessment from wider perspectives. To this end two ranking approaches are introduced to serve different stakeholders, and Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) journals are employed in the empirical studies. Finally, we report a real project of the 3E (i.e. Efficacy, Efficiency, Effectiveness) theory in an international research institute ranking, jointly carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China, and the Centre for Evaluation of Research Performance (CERP), University of Kent, UK.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590068
Date January 2011
CreatorsXu, Fang
PublisherUniversity of Kent
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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