Looking beyond the Italian VQR 2004-2010: Improving the Bibliometric Evaluation of Research

In the recent Italian Evaluation of Research Quality exercise for the period 2004-2010 (VQR), promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education and carried by the National Agency for Research Evaluation (ANVUR), metrics were massively employed. The use of Impact Factor or article citations (or both) are usually considered a powerful tool for supporting the peer review process but the replacement of the latter with an automatic evaluation tool has been always considered risky. Here we propose a possible prescription to overcome some limitations of the bibliometric evaluation carried out within the context of the VQR, while, at the same time, keeping the main distinctive features of the evaluation approach unchanged, namely, a simple evaluation tool based on the combined use of the CIT and IF variables While maintaining the basic elements of the previous algorithm unchanged and keeping the method simple and feasible on a large scale, we argue that the main flaws and limitations can be overcome. Conference Topic University Policy and Institutional Rankings