Chapter 14: Meta-research and researcher evaluation

Abstract

Meta-research (also known as ‘research on research’ and ‘science of science’) is a broad field of inquiry which seeks to understanding how research is performed and to guide improvements in systems and policies for its conduct and management. Research evaluation has become increasingly entwined with meta-research, especially that branch of the field dealing with the quantitative analysis of research performance at the level of researchers and research groups, institutions, and journals. In this chapter we focus on researcher-level evaluation and examine how quantitative and qualitative approaches have been developed to conceptualise and evidence the achievements of individual researchers, with a particular focus on diverse indicators and the evaluation of societal impact.