Some Aspects of Assessing Research Activities

1. Some Aspects of Assessing Research Activities Iva Kirovová The Czech Republic Faculty of Economics Department of Management Iva.kirovova@vsb.cz

2. Science Contribution • Science relationship to economy growth • Knowledge economy • Evaluation practices and assessment methods • Practical application IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

3. Assessment of Research Performance (1) Avital, Collopy (2001) mention 2 main approaches: evaluative and explanatory • The Evaluative approach • Performance (outputs) evaluation • Comparison and ranking of researches, programs, institutions, etc. • Reputation issue (e.g.colleagues´assesment) • Yield issue (e.g.publications, conferences, etc.) • Influence issue (e.g.journal rankings, an impact factor) IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

4. Assessment of Research Performance (2) • The Explanatory approach • Identification of determinants (the antecedents) of research performance • Individual factors • Demographic • Experience • Personality • Organizational factors • Mission, performance evaluation (reward system), research grants received, time spent on research and teaching, etc. IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

5. Assessing Research Activities in Czech University Context (1) • The assessment has become an important criterion for commencing academic degrees or applying for managerial university positions • Mostly evaluative approach is applied • Bibliometric methods IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

6. Assessing Research Activities in Czech University Context (2) • An equal opportunity issue • All disciplines have no relevant local journals with an impact factor • Publications in foreign journals • Limited access • University have limited subscriptions to the journals • Participations in foreign conferences • Limited access • High costs IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

7. Assessing Research Activities in Czech University Context (3) • Department orientation • Stable significant differences in the same faculty • Stable significant differences in teaching duties • Gender issue IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

8. Assessing Research Activities in Czech University Context (4) • The explanatory approach has been often neglected although reports on institutional environment, research context or individual characteristics of university staff • Interconnections with university mission, HRM policy, and managerial competencies of university or faculty management IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma

9. Conclusions • There is no one best approach • Providing equal opportunities and application of reasonable multidimensionalcriteria is a responsibility of universities, if they apply criteria for assessing research performance IAREP/SABE at LUISS Roma