{"id":53248,"date":"2020-07-17T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T20:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=53248"},"modified":"2020-07-17T13:21:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T20:21:44","slug":"we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Very few aspects of our lives escape numerical evaluation for comparative purposes. Humanity\u2019s current challenge is to keep Covid-19\u2019s reproduction number, or R0, as low as possible to prevent its spread.<\/p>\n

This numerical fixation is certainly true of university research. Many measures of research output, quality and impact are used to guide recruitment, funding and promotion. But while it might seem odd in the midst of a viral pandemic to question this, I believe that now is exactly the right time.<\/p>\n

There is no virtue in reducing rich complexity to banal metrics. Haydn wrote 107 symphonies and Beethoven produced only nine \u2013 yet while most of us can hum at least one of Beethoven\u2019s, few can recall any of Haydn\u2019s. That, in essence, is the problem with using numbers to measure the sole worth of something as complex as what emerges from the human imagination.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, measuring research quality is no different. Measures such as numbers of scholarly publications, the impact factor of the journals in which the papers are published and their accumulated citations are widely used indicators of academic excellence and impact. However, by themselves these \u201c\u2018traditional\u201d\u2019 measures don\u2019t capture the more subtle aspects of research quality, can trivialise deep scholarship, vary enormously by discipline and are so far removed from expressing public value they are very limited in usefulness.<\/p>\n

An initiative aiming to shift assessment of research performance from numerical assessment to peer review is the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment<\/a> (Dora). Its objective is to transform how research quality is understood, creating a culture where numerical measures are no longer the primary determinant of promotion and research funding.<\/p>\n

In a global groundswell, Dora has been signed by more than 15,000 individuals and 1,800 institutions since it was launched in 2012. The University of Melbourne has now become the first university in Australia to sign up, following the likes of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.<\/p>\n

Numerical measures are popular with decision-makers because they give the impression of objectivity and are easier and faster than a deeper scrutiny of the research by experts. But we should always bear Goodhart\u2019s Law in mind: \u201cWhen a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economists who study<\/a> research metrics find that scholars are hesitant to embark on bold or risky research in case they are unable to produce papers able to boost their citation counts (h-index) and\/or be published in journals with high impact factors (a measure initially designed not to measure research quality but to market journals to librarians).<\/p>\n

The second problem with numerical measures is that they disadvantage academics who take time out raise a family or to focus on teaching. They also favour those who publish large volumes of minor work, describe a widely used method or technology, or write many review articles, over those who publish deep investigation on difficult problems that have impact over the long term.<\/p>\n

Numerical measures are immature as reflections of the best interdisciplinary research and fail to capture some of our most important research: work that improves clinical practice, reforms social policy or generates research sets and software for others to use.<\/p>\n

Our challenge is to disentangle research quality from numerical measures that reward caution, short-termism and exclude certain types of research and researcher. For instance, the UK\u2019s national Research Excellence Framework explicitly does not use journal impact factors to understand either research quality or research impact. In Australia, we have a similar strategy with the government\u2019s research and impact agenda<\/a> and the NHMRC\u2019s \u201cstatement of impact<\/a>\u201d, introduced as part of grant applications.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has called for the introduction of the \u201crule of five\u201d. That would require researchers seeking jobs, promotion or funding to present their best five research papers from the past five to 10 years, accompanied by a description of the research, its impact and how they contributed to what is often a team effort.<\/p>\n

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne and the Frances Crick Institute in London are both supporting researchers by removing constraints imposed by the need to publish to get the next job or gain another three-year grant by instituting seven-year appointments for new lab heads.<\/p>\n

The biggest problems of our time \u2013 emerging diseases, statelessness, climate change, social equity and new energy sources, to name but a few \u2013 need the attention of our best research minds, unconstrained by simplistic measures of performance and success.<\/p>\n

A more holistic judgment of the quality and impact of research, informed but not driven by metrics, will instil greater confidence in our research community to take the risks needed to break down paradigms and change the world.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/strong>Jim McCluskey is deputy vice-chancellor (research) at the University of Melbourne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very few aspects of our lives escape numerical evaluation for comparative purposes. Humanity\u2019s current challenge is to keep Covid-19\u2019s reproduction number, or R0, as low as possible to prevent its spread. This numerical fixation is certainly true of university research. Many measures of research output, quality and impact are used to guide recruitment, funding and […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":53249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86115],"tags":[357269],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-53248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-management-by-numbers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWe must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Very few aspects of our lives escape numerical evaluation for comparative purposes. Humanity\u2019s current challenge is to keep Covid-19\u2019s reproduction number, or R0, as low as possible to prevent its spread. This numerical fixation is certainly true of university research. Many measures of research output, quality and impact are used to guide recruitment, funding and […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"383\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":809,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/management-by-numbers.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"management-by-numbers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/\",\"name\":\"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/management-by-numbers.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/management-by-numbers.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/management-by-numbers.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":383},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Very few aspects of our lives escape numerical evaluation for comparative purposes. Humanity\u2019s current challenge is to keep Covid-19\u2019s reproduction number, or R0, as low as possible to prevent its spread. This numerical fixation is certainly true of university research. Many measures of research output, quality and impact are used to guide recruitment, funding and […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":383,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers","datePublished":"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/"},"wordCount":809,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg","keywords":["management-by-numbers"],"articleSection":["Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/","name":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-07-17T20:21:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/management-by-numbers.jpeg","width":680,"height":383},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-must-get-beyond-research-management-by-numbers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We must get beyond research management-by-numbers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53250,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53248\/revisions\/53250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53248"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=53248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}