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Key Issues in Research Quality. Why does quality matter?. Career trajectories It may be linked to usability It is rewarded Accumulation It supports trust It aids decision-making. Dilemma 1.
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Why does quality matter? • Career trajectories • It may be linked to usability • It is rewarded • Accumulation • It supports trust • It aids decision-making
Dilemma 1 Assessment techniques filter outputs and orient them towards external specifications and requirements Assessment techniques help research communities to gain increased control over the contingencies of their practice
How can quality be captured? • Explicitness • Impact • “Grand science” model • Through accounts or prescriptions? • Circular definitions • Expectations
Dilemma 2 Simplified proxies and standardised measurement Deliberation and judgement
Does quality lead to excellence? • Diversity of criteria • Context-dependent • Different stakeholders have different interpretations • Different contexts of assessment and sites of production
Quality and excellence (2) • Modes of research • Scale and scope of research • Cumulation • Responsiveness
Dilemma 3 Quality criteria for quality assurance and assessment Nurturing excellence
Can research be ranked? • Non-overlap of appreciations of quality • Respect for alternate views • Spatial scale and time scale • Process or outputs • Quality of education?
Dilemma 4 Hierarchies of knowledge and of practices Complex blend of modes of knowledge and practice
Questions • How can quality be supported throughout research processes? • How can critical autonomy be preserved at different levels and in different sites? • How can we untangle accountability and quality? • How can quality of engagement of different communities be nurtured/ • In what ways is quality linked to capacity building?