Quality and quantity: HSS research evaluation in Italy. A state of the art

Abstract

Research evaluation in Humanities is a theme of topical interest especially after the start of the national framework for research assessment (VQR 2004-2010). The debate on indicators, on how to correlate quality and quantity, on the notion itself of research quality, is very intense not only for the main characteristics of the research area, but for chronic lack of bibliographic and bibliometric data, too.This paper aims at making the point on what has been done until now, taking into account positive and not positive experiences of other research systems; it tries to individuate some ways to follow in the future: the creation of a bibliographic database according to international standards, a refernce guide for assessing monographs, a better technological exploitation both for distribution and validation of research products, and for their evaluation as well.