Research assessment in the humanities: Introduction

Abstract

Research assessments in the humanities are highly controversial. While citation-based research performance indicators are widely used in the natural and life sciences, quantitative measures for research performance meet strong opposition in the humanities. Since there are many problems connected to the use of bibliometrics in the humanities, new approaches have to be considered for the assessment of humanities research. Recently, concepts and methods for measuring research quality in the humanities have been developed in several countries. The edited volume ‘Research Assessment in the Humanities: Towards Criteria and Procedures’ analyses and discusses these recent developments in depth. It combines the presentation of state-of-the-art projects on research assessments in the humanities by humanities scholars themselves with a description of the evaluation of humanities research in practice presented by research funders. Bibliometric issues concerning humanities research complete the exhaustive analysis of humanities research assessment.