Scientific research is communicated, organized, financed, governed, and evaluated through the process of publication. The result of this process is a highly competitive academic environment that rewards researchers for high volume publication, preferably in high-impact journals, leading to the popularised expression ‘publish or perish’. Universities and other scientific institutions are under similar pressure, with their aggregated research output being under constant scrutiny. This innovative text provides a detailed introduction to the origin and development of the scholarly metrics used to measure academic productivity, and the effect they have upon the quality and diversity of scientific research. With its careful attention to both the positive and negative outcomes of research evaluation and their distinct expressions around the globe, The Evaluation Game guides the way to a more grounded understanding of metrics, and the diverse academic cultures they give rise to.
- Provides a comprehensive account of the transformations in scholarly communication generated by research evaluation systems, and proposes a fundamental rethinking of the values that drive academia.
- Presents the first historical account of research evaluation systems in the East, tracing them back to their roots in the modernization of Russia.
- Discusses the two distinct trajectories of modernisation and metricization in academia, the socialist and capitalist, allowing readers to understand why researchers in different regions react differently to research evaluation.
(Abstract a cura dell’Autore)