New quality and quantity indices in science (NewQIS): the study protocol of an international project

Abstract

Benchmarking systems are important features for the implementation of efficacy in basic and applied sciences. These systems are urgently needed for many fields of science since there is an imbalance present between funding policies and research evaluation. Here, a new approach is presented with an international study project that uses visualisation techniques for benchmarking processes. The project is entitled New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science (NewQIS). The juxtaposition of classical scientometric tools and novel visualisation techniques can be used to assess quality and quantity in science. In specific, the tools can be used to assess quality and quantity of research activity for distinct areas of science, for single institutions, for countries, for single time periods, or for single scientists. Also, NewQIS may be used to compare different fields, institutions, countries, or scientists for their scientific output. Thus, decision making for funding allocation can be made more transparent. Since governmental bodies that supervise funding policies and allocation processes are often not equipped with an in depth expertise in this area, special attention is given to data visualisation techniques that allow to visualize mapping of research activity and quality.

Density equalizing mapping of the global tuberculosis research architecture

“…A remarkable difference was present in the individual focus of each country analyzed in the Scopus database [24]. The USA had a clear ranking with the primary focus on studies related to heart (1), brain (2), Muscle (3), liver (4) and lung (5). A similar focus is shared by Western countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany or Switzerland with an identical top 3 focus.…”

“…As technological basis for the present study the scientometric platform: "New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science" (NewQIS) was used [4,5]. NewQIS was established in 2008/2009 and combines novel visualizing techniques and analyzing tools for bibliometric parameters.…”

“…In view of the importance of tuberculosis for public health, the New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science (NewQIS) project [4,5] aimed to assess this infectious disease. Our hypothesis was that there is a constant increase in the global scientific activity with an imbalance between the different continents.…”

Magnetresonanztomographie

“…Die Technik der "Density Equalizing Map Projection" (DEMP) bietet die Mög-lichkeit einer kartografischen Darstellung der Welt mit variablem Maßstab zu erstellen [12,13,14,15]. In jener Kartenanamorphote werden einzelne Länder und Regionen proportional zu einem untersuchten Merkmal abgebildet.…”

Density-Equalizing Mapping and Scientometric Benchmarking in INDUSTRIAL HEALTH

“…While the gain of knowledge concerning these studies was recently summarized by Smith et al 1) and there are also reports on publishing trends and citation indexing available 10,11) , novel scientometric techniques in combination with visualizing techniques have not been implemented so far. Therefore, the present study was designed to visualize research activity using INDUSTRIAL HEALTH articles and density equalizing procedures in combination with classical bibliometric techniques in accordance to the NewQIS protocols 12,13) .…”