Quality related publication categories in social sciences and humanities, based on a university's peer review assessments

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to identify publication categories in social sciences and humanities that best reflect research quality, using correlations with peer judgments to improve performance assessments.

Contribution

It introduces a correlation-based approach to select publication categories that accurately represent research quality in social sciences and humanities.

Findings

Journal articles with international referees are the most indicative of quality.

Book chapters with international referees are also significant.

International conference proceedings contribute to quality assessment.

Abstract

Bibliometric analysis has firmly conquered its place as an instrument for evaluation and international comparison of performance levels. Consequently, differences in coverage by standard bibliometric databases installed a dichotomy between on the one hand the well covered 'exact' sciences, and on the other hand most of the social sciences and humanities with a more limited coverage (Nederhof, 2006). Also the latter domains need to be able to soundly demonstrate their level of performance and claim or legitimate funding accordingly. An important part of the output volume in social sciences appears as books, book chapters and national literature (Hicks, 2004). To proceed from publication data to performance measurement, quantitative publication counts need to be combined with qualitative information, for example from peer assessment or validation (European Expert Group on Assessment of University-Based Research, 2010), to identify those categories that represent research quality as perceived by peers. An accurate focus is crucial in order to stimulate, recognize and reward high quality achievements only. This paper demonstrates how such a selection of publication categories can be based on correlations with peer judgments. It is also illustrated that the selection should be sufficiently precise, to avoid subcategories negatively correlated with peer judgments. The findings indicate that, also in social sciences and humanities, publications in journals with an international referee system are the most important category for evaluating quality. Book chapters with international referee system and contributions in international conference proceedings follow them.