The study of “scientific excellence†is taking on increasing importance in the development of research policies in many nations. However, scientific excellence is difficult to define because of its multidimensional and highly complex character. This work contributes to the state of the...

The use of outcome control modes of research evaluation exercises is ever more frequent. They are conceived as tools to stimulate increased levels of research productivity, and to guide choices in allocating components of government research budgets for publicly funded institutions. There are...

This paper employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess both technical and cost efficiency of research activities of the Italian university system. Differently from both peer review and the top-down discipline-invariant bibliographic approaches used elsewhere, a bottom-up bibliometric...

The selection of referees for evaluation of research projects under competitive financing appears particularly critical: the greater the competence of the referee concerning the core topic, the more their judgment is trustworthy and the more the financing of the best proposals is probable. The...