TY - GEN
T1 - In defence of 'early career universities'
AU - Butler, Linda
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - The expansion of access to tertiary education resulted in the creation of many new universities in the 1970s and 1980s. As a parallel to use of the term 'early career researchers', these institutions can be labelled 'early career universities' (ECU). With the move in many countries to a greater use of metrics in the assessment of research, the implications for ECUs must be recognised. Data from a comprehensive study of Australian publication output, alongside a detailed analysis of one ECU, provide important insights into the issues that might arise. It reveals that ECUs can be characterised by a rapid increase in publication output, and a reliance on non-ISI journal outlets. Both trends diminish the usefulness of common bibliometric measures and evaluators must be sensitive to this. Where multi-year citation windows are used, the deflating effects on citation rates publication output biased towards the most recent years needs to be recognised and catered for. In addition, it is clear that ISI coverage of ECU output is much lower than for established universities.
AB - The expansion of access to tertiary education resulted in the creation of many new universities in the 1970s and 1980s. As a parallel to use of the term 'early career researchers', these institutions can be labelled 'early career universities' (ECU). With the move in many countries to a greater use of metrics in the assessment of research, the implications for ECUs must be recognised. Data from a comprehensive study of Australian publication output, alongside a detailed analysis of one ECU, provide important insights into the issues that might arise. It reveals that ECUs can be characterised by a rapid increase in publication output, and a reliance on non-ISI journal outlets. Both trends diminish the usefulness of common bibliometric measures and evaluators must be sensitive to this. Where multi-year citation windows are used, the deflating effects on citation rates publication output biased towards the most recent years needs to be recognised and catered for. In addition, it is clear that ISI coverage of ECU output is much lower than for established universities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84894089447&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9789171403391
T3 - Proceedings of ISSI 2005: 10th International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics
SP - 290
EP - 294
BT - Proceedings of ISSI 2005
T2 - 10th Biennial International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, ISSI 2005
Y2 - 24 July 2005 through 28 July 2005
ER -