New perspectives on science, technology and innovation indicators: introduction to special section

This section of Research Evaluation includes three papers coming from the International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators organised by the PRIME Network of Excellence in Lugano in November 2006. In their diversity of approaches, they share some basic inspirations of the indicators activities developed in the PRIME Network of Excellence: first, a focus on relatively unexplored issues where well-established methodologies do not exist; the attention to the needs of indicators users; finally, a case-by-case approach where indicators are built ad hoc to answer to specific questions and by combining different data sources. These papers are a useful contribution to the debate on new S&T indicators, as well as the underlying organisation of the indicator production system. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.