The culture of orphaned texts: Academic books in a performance-based evaluation system
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68378025%3A_____%2F18%3A00496177" target="_blank" >RIV/68378025:_____/18:00496177 - isvavai.cz</a>
Alternative codes found
RIV/68378076:_____/18:00496177
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0063" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0063</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0063" target="_blank" >10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0063</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The culture of orphaned texts: Academic books in a performance-based evaluation system
Original language description
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of knowledge on how research evaluation in different national and organisational contexts affects, often in unintended ways, research and publication practices. In particular, it looks at the development of book publication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the Czech Republic since 2004, when a performance-based system of evaluation was introduced, up to the present.nDesign/methodology/approach – The paper builds upon ethnographic research complemented by the analysis of Czech science policy documents, data available in the governmental database “Information Register of R&D results” and formal and informal interviews with expert evaluators and other stakeholders in the research system. It further draws on the authors’ own experience as scholars, who have also over the years participated in a number of evaluation procedures as peers and experts.nFindings – The number of books published by researchers in SSH based at Czech institutions has risen considerably in reaction to the pressure for productivity that is inscribed into the evaluation methodology and has resulted in the rise of in-house publishing by researchers’ own research institution, “fake internationalisation” using foreign low-quality presses as the publication venue, and the development of a culture of orphaned books that have no readers.nPractical implications – In the Czech Republic robust and internationally harmonised bibliometric data regarding books would definitely help to create a form of research evaluation that would stimulate meaningful scholarly book production. At the same time, better-resourced and better-designed peer review evaluation is needed.nOriginality/value – This is the first attempt to analyse in detail the conditions and consequences the Czech performance-based research evaluation system has for SSH book publication. The paper demonstrates that often discussed harming of SSH and book-writing in particular by performance-based IF-centred research evaluation does not necessarily manifest in declining numbers of publications. On the contrary, the number of books published may increase at the cost of producing more texts of questionable scholarly quality.n
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50401 - Sociology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA15-16452S" target="_blank" >GA15-16452S: Medicine Multiple: Ethnography of the interfaces between biomedical and alternative therapeutic practices</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2018
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Aslib Journal of Information Management
ISSN
2050-3806
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
70
Issue of the periodical within the volume
6
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
20
Pages from-to
623-642
UT code for WoS article
000449153300004
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85055995591