Italian Economics Departments’ Scientific Research Performance: Comparison between VQR and ASN Methodologies

The aim of this article is to investigate whether there are important differences between the evaluation procedures adopted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research in the evaluation of scientific research. The two procedures, one for the periodic exercise of the evaluation of scientific research activities and the other to verify the possession of the requisites necessary to be employed as a professor at a university, have different purposes and have been implemented with different evaluation approaches. Analysing sample data extracted from the well-known Scopus database, we replicate the assessment methodologies, obtaining some interesting results. The two procedures identify the same departments of excellence and draw similar rankings. The two evaluation criteria are not so far apart in the identification of the departments of excellence. Through the use of coloured maps, we then identify that the distribution of the departments of excellence in the national territory favours the northern regions.