The measurement of quality and reputation in the world of learning

useful to have research evaluated by persons from other fields who could not even understand a scientific paper in a field other than their own? Why do we desire or need such evaluation? The fact is that research in general has become more and more expensive, and politicians and administrators must decide on which projects to spend money. The question is: how can they obtain the necessary information? My reflections on this subject are based on my experience of the Federal Republic of Germany and on the study of recent books which deal with the evaluation of research in the Federal Republic.1