Peer Review and Bibliometric: Potentials and Problems

Abstract

Among the various human activities, activities in science are those that are the most subject to evaluation by peers (Laloë and Mosseri 2009). Such evaluations ­determine, among ranking positions of universities, who gets which job, who gets tenure, and who gets which awards and honors (Feist 2006). For the THE – QS World University Rankings, the assessment by peers is the centerpiece of the ranking process; peer review is also a major indicator in the US News & World Report rankings (Enserink 2007). By defining losers and winners in the competition for positions, grants, publication of results, and all kinds of awards, peer review is a central social control institution in the research community (Langfeldt 2006: 32). Research evaluation systems in the various countries of the world (e.g., the British research assessment exercise) are normally based on peer review. The edited book of Whitley and Gläser (2007) shows how these systems are changing the organization of scientific knowledge production and universities in the countries involved (Moed 2008).