A Proposal Of An Indicator To Evaluate Research Activities Based On Scimago Institu-tions Ranking (SIR) Data: An Application To Italian High Education Institutions.

Abstract

In this paper we propose a synthetic indicator for evaluating Italian universities’ scientific research using the Scimago Institutions Ranking (SIR) 2014 data. Starting from some indicators computed by SIR, after having analysed the distribution shape, fitted parameters of some statistical models, calculated an appropriate standardization, we aggregate the indicators to get a Synthetic Indicator (from now, SI) of research evaluation. The obtained synthetic indicator has been used to rank Italian Higher Education Institutions (from now, HEIs). This ranking has been compared firstly with the ranking of National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR), based on the Evaluation of Research Quality (VRQ 2004-2010) results, in terms of standardized mark, and then with the ranking based on the assignments of the competitive allocation model (research share of FFO) yearly attributed to the Italian HEIs by the Ministry of University and Research (MIUR).

The results of the analysis show a moderate positive correlation between SI and the VQR 2004-2010 indicators (r=0,543), and between SI and FFO per capita  (r=0,487).The paper’s original contribution deals with a Synthetic Indicator with a Gaussian distribution summarizing the SIR variables and with the highlighting of a convergence between Italian ANVUR evaluation, based on peer to peer and bibliometric analysis, but using only few publications, and the analysis proposed in this paper, based on Scopus bibliometric data, and related to all the publications in the same period.