The challenges of scientific research evaluation

Professor Emanuela Reale - Evaluation of research conducted by academic institutions was one of the topics addressed during the fourth REHES workshop, Research on Higher Education and Science in Switzerland, which brought together some 50 scholars at Università della Svizzera italiana to discuss the challenges of the higher education system. In particular, the focus was on the impact of evaluations carried out outside the scientific community, mainly those carried out by governments to distribute funds or to accredit institutions of higher learning. We talked about this with Emanuela Reale , director of the Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth of the Italian CNR, who, together with her colleague Antonio Zinilli presented a study conducted on Italian universities. The starting point is the juxtaposition of two ideas of research quality in the scientific literature on the topic. "The first is the one that researchers construct within their community of reference," explained Professor Reale. Sociologists construct their idea of quality within the sociology community, biologists within the biology community, and so on. "It is a homogeneous idea because it refers to the same kind of knowledge, methodologies and procedures." The second idea of quality, on the other hand, is that generated by governments, which, as an entity outside the scientific community, evaluate research according to specific standards and indicators. Tension is thus created between two different evaluation systems, and the purpose of the research presented concerns precisely the effects of this tension. "Will researchers adjust their idea of research quality by looking at the indicators chosen by politics, or will they follow a double track?