A multivariate stochastic model to assess research performance

Abstract

There is a worldwide trend towards application of bibliometric research evaluation, in support of the needs of policy makers and research administrators. However the assumptions and limitations of bibliometric measurements suggest a probabilistic rather than the traditional deterministic approach to the assessment of research performance. The aim of this work is to propose a multivariate stochastic model for measuring the performance of individual scientists and to compare the results of its application with those arising from a deterministic approach. The dataset of the analysis covers the scientific production indexed in Web of Science for the 2006-2010 period, of over 900 Italian academic scientists working in two distinct fields of the life sciences.