Actual Researcher Contribution (ARC) Versus the Perceived Contribution to the Scientific Body of Knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose a new quantitative metric that can be used to measure the total actual researcher contribution (ARC) to a body of knowledge. The proposed ARC metric is a fair measure that is needed to address the abuse of research collaboration and issues arising from honorary authorship, which both lead to the inflation of the total number of published articles by a researcher. This inflation can provide misleading information about a researcher’s expertise and competence based on their perceived contribution. Research ranking agencies, database indexes, universities, and other decision makers can rely on the ARC metric to rank and evaluate university and researcher contributions to a body of knowledge and thus make more informed decisions and allocate research resources more efficiently.