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Evaluating research institutions: the potential of the success-index

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  • Fiorenzo Franceschini

    (Politecnico di Torino)

  • Domenico Maisano

    (Politecnico di Torino)

  • Luca Mastrogiacomo

    (Politecnico di Torino)

Abstract

Similarly to the h-index and other indicators, the success-index is a recent indicator that makes it possible to identify, among a general group of papers, those of greater citation impact. This indicator implements a field-normalization at the level of single paper and can therefore be applied to multidisciplinary groups of articles. Also, it is very practical for normalizations aimed at achieving the so-called size-independency. Thanks to these (and other) properties, this indicator is particularly versatile when evaluating the publication output of entire research institutions. This paper exemplifies the potential of the success-index by means of several practical applications, respectively: (i) comparison of groups of researchers within the same scientific field, but affiliated with different universities, (ii) comparison of different departments of the same university, and (iii) comparison of entire research institutions. A sensitivity analysis will highlight the success-index’s robustness. Empirical results suggest that the success-index may be conveniently extended to large-scale assessments, i.e., involving a large number of researchers and research institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo, 2013. "Evaluating research institutions: the potential of the success-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 85-101, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:96:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0887-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0887-2
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    1. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo, 2014. "The citer-success-index: a citer-based indicator to select a subset of elite papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 963-983, November.
    2. Domenico A. Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo & Fiorenzo Franceschini, 2020. "Short-term effects of non-competitive funding to single academic researchers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(3), pages 1261-1280, June.
    3. Wang, Xing & Zhang, Zhihui, 2020. "Improving the reliability of short-term citation impact indicators by taking into account the correlation between short- and long-term citation impact," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    4. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2017. "Critical remarks on the Italian research assessment exercise VQR 2011–2014," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 337-357.
    5. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin, 2016. "Citation score normalized by cited references (CSNCR): The introduction of a new citation impact indicator," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 875-887.
    6. Lei Hou & Jiashan Luo & Xue Pan, 2022. "Research Topic Specialization of Universities in Information Science and Library Science and Its Impact on Inter-University Collaboration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-14, July.

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