Research quality evaluation in social sciences: The case of criteria on the conditions and requirements for academic promotion in Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro

Abstract

The primary goal of the present paper is to analyse and compare the criteria on the conditions and requirements for academic promotion in three countries: Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The University of Novi Sad, the University of Ljubljana, and the University of Montenegro were selected to be subjects in this study. The sources used for the analyses in this study were the official criteria on the condition and requirements for academic promotion at the abovementioned universities. The authors used a descriptive method with the consulting of competent sources and personal experiences. First, it is interesting to note that the universities in Serbia and Slovenia follow official documents at two levels: one at the national level issued by the relevant higher education council/agency and the second at the university level issued by the senate of each university, whose criteria are more strict in terms of quantitative requirements. However, this is not the case in Montenegro, where universities follow only the national criteria in the research quality evaluation. In each country, evaluation exercises usually recognize three fields, one of which is social sciences and humanities, which is concerned with an entire range of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific areas. Comparing the minimum standards for the appointment of university teachers, it is essential to highlight that Slovenian regulations are the most demanding, especially with regards to quantitative criteria, while Serbian and Montenegrin criteria are similar to each other; however, it is necessary to highlight that Montenegrin regulations contain some unusual criteria, such as the requirement that scientific research work must be achieved through one single-author paper published in an international journal for promotion to academic titles at all three levels (assistant, associate and full professor) in social sciences and humanities; however, this is not the case in other academic fields.