ERIC Number: EJ1446442
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0958-2029
EISSN: EISSN-1471-5449
(Dis)Harmonic Styles of Valuation: A Study of Academic Justification across Research Domains and Levels of Assessment
Research Evaluation, v33 Article rvae037 2024
Disciplines display field-specific ways of valuing research contributions, and these different 'styles of valuation' influence how academic careers are assessed and formed. Yet, differences in how research is evaluated are also prevalent between different levels of assessment: collegial and organizational. Consequently, we employ a multifaceted two-dimensional approach for studying styles of valuation where both horizontal (across domains) and vertical (organization levels) variations in assessment practices are examined. For this purpose, we make use of 16 faculty guidelines and 112 referee reports concerning candidates for becoming 'docent' (Habilitation) from four broad domains: the humanities, the social sciences, medicine and the natural sciences (including technology). By inductively identifying five broad dimensions used when assessing publication merits: (1) "Attribution of work," (2) "Qualities of content," (3) "Publication channel," (4) "Publication impact," and (5) "Publication volume" we can distinguish specific styles of valuation for each of our four domains. Moreover, by extending the analysis to an organizational level we detect opposing ways in which the evaluations are justified--what we call 'disharmonic styles of valuation'. Thus, when developing insights on 'quality understandings'--and their operationalization through styles of valuation--in academia we need to put less emphasis on their origins and rather focus on how they come to travel between and co-exist within specific evaluative contexts.
Descriptors: Evaluation Methods, Guidelines, College Faculty, Humanities, Social Sciences, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Faculty Publishing, Faculty Evaluation, Research
Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: jnls.cust.serv@oxfordjournals.org; Web site: http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A