Increasing the level of integration is currently an important policy objective for European research. This brings to light issues regarding the meaning and nature of integration and integration in research; issues associated with the mechanisms to enable and facilitate higher levels of...

The approach adopted in the design of a system of continuous evaluation and monitoring for COST, the European mechanism for the stimulation of co-operation in scientific and technical research, is described. The emphasis is on the derivation of a framework which asks questions about the...

Change in policy and organisation is often presented as solely the outcome of a combination of social and political processes. Furthermore, these processes are, somewhat misguidedly it is argued here, presented as explanations or ‘reasons’ rather than historically specific social mechanism...

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the change process of academic science. The change pressures currently visible in UK science have been conceptualised as the product of three interdependent dynamics: a shift towards neo-liberal ideologies and discourses of government; a process of...

We describe the development and testing of a framework to characterize researchers individually (a profile) and in aggregate (as types) at the first stage, baseline step of a controlled, two-stage study of public research funding agency impacts. Our framework characterizes researcher attitudes...

This article presents a process for benchmarking scientific productivity fit for public policy purposes, in which quantitative indicators have the major role of initiating and focusing the discussions. It shows that the calculation of a research productivity indicator defined as the ratio of the...

Since indicators play an increasing role for decisions regarding research policy and management, the issues of their epistemological status and conditions of robustness are important ones. The purpose of this article is to show that the building and interpretation of S&T indicators is a...