Publications

The proliferation of quantitative research assessment has been accompanied by an increasing growth and diversification of digital infrastructure for evaluative bibliometrics. Since the beginning of the 2000s, insights into academic performance provided by a variety of new databases and devices significantly exceed the capacities of the former Science Citation Index and embedded metrics. Going beyond the research on the construction, uses, and consequences of bibliometric indicators, we therefore posit that a perspective on bibliometric infrastructure is crucial for understanding how evaluative bibliometrics is put into practice.

This review of the transparency literature has shown the evolution of the field through the prism of bibliographic and methodological data. In doing so, we have shed light into underlying disparities that go in line with arguments of structural problems and historical relations in socio-political contexts. We have highlighted the irony of the field in researching a topic that, due to determinants beyond the control of scholars (though OA policies may slowly generate a structural change), is in itself little transparent. The blurriness of the state of research in transparency and accountability helps us to address the overall debate of academic production in a critical manner, engaging with issues such as publishing and funding.

Collaborative research is becoming increasingly important. By linking competences and experiences, sharing cost-intensive resources and bringing together different disciplinary perspectives, synergy effects are generated and innovative research projects are promoted. However, the collaboration of researchers also involves risks that can be traced back to the framework conditions that characterise the collaboration of the participants. The DEKiF project ("Determinants and Effects of Cooperations in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Research Associations") examines the implementation of collaborative research within the framework of different sub-studies with the aim of mapping cooperation problems.