A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF 6 ECONOMICS RESEARCH GROUPS - A COMPARISONWITH PEER-REVIEW

The research performance of research units in economics has been evalu ated by simultaneous efforts of peers and bibliometricians, with exten sive interactive comparison of results afterwards. We studied trends i n productivity and impact of six economics research groups in the peri od 1980-1988. These groups participate in a large (above one million p ounds) research programme of a national Research Council. Research per formance of the groups was compared to the world average by means of t he Journal Citation Score method. In order to investigate the influenc e of one key scientists (the ''star effect'') we applied a sensitivity analysis to the performance of the research groups by elimination of the papers (and subsequent citations) of one key member. Furthermore, to provide insight into the fields to which a group directs its work, and the fields in which a group has its most important contributions, comparisons were made of publishing and citing journal packets. Simila rly, citations to the work of the research groups were analysed for co untry of origin. We compared the results of the bibliometric part of t his study with those of a simultaneous peer review study. The bibliome tric study yielded clear and meaningful results, notwithstanding the i ncreasingly applied nature of the research groups. Results from peer r eview and bibliometric studies appear to be complementary and mutually supportive. The participants of the bibliometrics peer review ''confr ontation'' meeting regarded the exercise as most valuable, with lesson s for the Research Council both for the future of research programmes and the form of evaluation used for large awards.