This paper overviews the growth of basic research in the second half of the twentieth century, and its gradual recent transformation toward applied research. The paper shows how the refocusing of basic research is strongly linked to increasing competitive corporate pressures and increasing pressures from other government programs on the limited government budgets. With these increasing competitive pressures comes the attendant increased call for accountability, and the substitution of strategic goals for unfettered opportunity-driven research. With modem day computer technology, the accountability has a correspondingly stronger quantitative component, even though the fundamental difficulties of identifying and quantifying the full range of research impacts remain unresolved. This paper, and this special issue, examine the diverse quantitative measures under consideration for research evaluation and impact assessment, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the various classes of measures. Each paper in this special issue is overviewed in the present introductory paper. The very important qualitative and retrospective methods used to support research accountability 1-3 are not included in this paper, and are not main themes of this focused special issue.
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