Open AccessStatistical tests and research assessments: A comment on S chneider (2012)
Author(s) -
Bornmann Lutz,
Leydesdorff Loet
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1532-2890
pISSN - 1532-2882
DOI - 10.1002/asi.22860
Subject(s) - library science , citation , scholarly communication , citation impact , sociology , computer science , political science , publishing , law
In a recent presentation at the 17th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, Schneider (2012) criticised the proposal of Bornmann, de Moya Anegon, and Leydesdorff (2012) and Leydesdorff and Bornmann (2012) to use statistical tests in order to evaluate research assessments and university rankings. We agree with Schneider's proposal to add statistical power analysis and effect size measures to research evaluations, but disagree that these procedures would replace significance testing. Accordingly, effect size measures were added to the Excel sheets that we bring online for testing performance differences between institutions in the Leiden Ranking and the SCImago Institutions Ranking.