What makes research excellent? Digging into the measures aimed at quantifying and promoting research excellence

“Research excellence” is a tricky concept in theory and arguably trickier to capture in practice. Toni Pustovrh shares findings from a recent study which looks at how research is currently quantified and evaluated in Slovenia. In-depth interviews with scientists reveal a variety of views on the concept and the current mechanisms in place. The analysis suggests that neither a predominantly peer-review based evaluation system, nor one based mainly on quantitative metrics will ever be the best solution, as both have their inherent problems. As one survey respondent notes, “numerics do not reveal the content”.