Measuring Research Performance

The goal is to identify and analyze the international scientific output in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NN), with special emphasis on the volume of output, leadership, scientific excellence, internationalization and transferability of innovative knowledge to the productive sector, using the citation of this output in the development of patents. Moreover, the impact will be discussed in the broader public and not necessarily in the academic one, analyzing the visibility and the relationships between the websites of the institutions through the academic and general social networks. Characterization of the NN field will be completed with the analysis of the main research fronts and scientific collaboration networks at international and institutional level.

To do this, a variety of bibliometric, altmetrics and webometric indicators will be combined using different data sources: Scopus for scientific output, PATSTAT for technological impact and Cybermetrics, for web visibility. The geographic scope of analysis is the global output and especially that produced in Spain during the last decade.

The combination and integration of unconventional indicators and large volumes of data from some of the main international sources of information will allow us to show a multifaceted view of the scientific performance of the main countries and knowledge-generating institutions. The results will place Spain and its institutions in the international context, obtaining a lot of objective, useful and independent information on both the source data and the generation of indicators. The analytical value of these results will be used to make diagnoses based on the scientific performance of the country and its institutions, compared with other countries, identifying strengths and weaknesses of research results, as well as patterns and trends in scientific communication which may have an effect on its future position.

Due to its many applications, this discipline is one of the most important drivers of new industry and the knowledge society. Therefore, having this information, adds value to guide decision-making in the design of science policy on possible strategies for improvement, strengthening, consolidation or restructuring of the Spanish research in a context of global benchmarking. It is also useful for scientists themselves who will be able to assess how the discipline is evolving, which are the leading and centers of excellence as well as the profitability of the collaboration in terms of scientific and technological impact. Industry will have information on what institutions have the greater capacity to generate innovative knowledge and finally, students will have information about which institutions and countries have the largest capacities in each one of the indicators analyzed.

This approach outperforms the analyses carried out to date in the NN field. Moreover, its objectives are aligned with both set by the National Plan for Science and Technology and Horizon 2020 as well as the main challenges facing the evaluation of science and technology.