20 June 2019
CREST Director Prof Johann Mouton has been selected as one of 12 founding board members of the new International Center for the Study of Research (ICSR), launched by Elsevier. This new body responds to an increasing demand for transparency and guidance in best practice when it comes to the measurement of the societal impact of research.
The work of the ICSR will focus on the advancement and assessment of research across all fields of knowledge. To achieve this, the Center will promote the appropriate use of performance indicators and best evaluation practices, as well as transparency in the way research is assessed. Instead of favouring a one-size-fits-all approach, the focus will be on using a range of metrics and methods. These activities and objectives are underpinned by an awareness of the need to further the understanding of the sociological and technological factors that underpin the conduct of modern research. Moreover, there is a growing need for as a forum in which research evaluation can be debated alongside the testing of new hypotheses and fresh ideas. The center hopes to provide such a forum.
The Advisory Board has been constructed to include a geographically diverse range of voices, reflecting the fact that there is no single research culture, but rather a diversity of cultures around the world. According to Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski, VP of Research Intelligence at Elsevier, concepts of research metrics, evaluation, policy, and so forth will be rooted in these cultures and vary accordingly.
The Advisory Board consists of leaders in fields such as research metrics and research assessment. They will be called upon to provide expert input on developing, characterizing and validating new and existing research metrics, indicators and research assessment practices, as well as to advise on the selection of independent, external studies which could be supported on topics within this scope. The 12 members of the advisory board are:
- Professor Diana Hicks, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Sybille Hinze, German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies, Berlin, Germany
- Professor Amane Koizumi, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
- Professor Jacqueline Leta, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Professor Johann Mouton, Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science & Technology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Professor Chris Newfield, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
- Katarina Prpić, Institute for Social Research, Zagreb, Croatia
- Gunnar Sivertsen, Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo, Norway
- Professor Lin Zhang, School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
- Éric Archambault, General Manager, 1science, Elsevier, Canada
- Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski, Vice President, Research Intelligence, Elsevier, USA
- Andrew Plume, Senior Director of Research Evaluation, Elsevier, UK
Read the media announcement about the ICSR launch.
