Evaluate the Evaluations!

Gadagkar, R (2018) Evaluate the Evaluations! In: Dialogue - Science, Scientists, and Society, 1 (1). pp. 1-6.

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	Other (tatement by three national academies (Académie des Sciences, Leopoldina and Royal Society) on good practice in the evaluation of researchers and research programmes) evaluate-the-evaluations - Published Version Download (398kB)

Abstract

Bad practices seem to spread very rapidly and go to near fixation, making it very hard to subsequently replace them with good practices. Hence they linger long after their ‘badness’ has become widely recognized. Evaluating scientists and scientific papers by the Impact Factors (IF) of the journals in which they are published is one of the most pernicious of such lingering bad practices. In retrospect, it seems shocking that the practice of using IF has become so widely and uncritically accepted. The odds are so heavily stacked against the practice that I would have guessed that it won’t take off the ground. As has been mentioned in many forums, IF measures the impact of the journal and not of the paper, citation practices vary from discipline to discipline and ‘IF pressure’ is sure to lead to bad publishing practices. The bad practices associated with the evaluation procedures go well beyond the use of Impact Factors. Since evaluations are best done by peer groups, the business of eliminating bad practices and ushering in good practices is best attempted as a self-organized process by academics themselves with as wide a participation as possible. Science academies have a critical role in functioning as conscience keepers to usher in good practices and as gatekeepers to keep out bad practices. I believe that science academies around the world are not doing as good a job in this regard, as they potentially can. Recently, three prominent academies, Academie des Sciences of France, Leopoldina of Germany and The Royal Society, London have issued an excellent, joint statement about what they consider good and bad practices.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Dialogue - Science, Scientists, and Society
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	The copyright of this article belongs to the Authors.
Keywords:	Evaluating scientists, Scientific papers, Science academies, Citation practices, Impact factor
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	01 Mar 2021 09:38
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2022 04:30
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/67567

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