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Comparing the scientific quality achieved by funding instruments for single grant holders and for collaborative networks within a research system: Some observations

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  • John Rigby

    (University of Manchester)

Abstract

Increasingly, funding of academic research is carried out through the support of collaboration, rather than through single awards to a sole grant holder. The practice is well supported by evidence that larger, network-based research achieves high quality while leading to a number of capacity building benefits for the research system, although with significant transaction costs. However, the question of what kind of funding schemes should be made available to researchers is not a simple dichotomy between single grant-holder projects and networks. A key question is how to achieve a balance in each subject field between different forms of funding instrument employed while ensuring different forms of funding retain a reputation for generating research of high scientific quality. This paper reports the results of a systematic comparison of the scientific quality of 1010 scientific papers from the ISI database produced under two contrasting forms of funding instrument for a single year in the Austrian science system. Comparison of the arcsinh transformed citation counts of papers from the two main forms of funding for basic science at the level of main scientific field shows there is no statistically significant difference in the quality achieved by the two forms of funding. This may suggest that funders and research performers have succeeded in ensuring that different research instruments nevertheless achieve very similar levels of scientific excellence.

Suggested Citation

  • John Rigby, 2009. "Comparing the scientific quality achieved by funding instruments for single grant holders and for collaborative networks within a research system: Some observations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 78(1), pages 145-164, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:78:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-007-1970-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1970-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2015. "An evaluation of collaborative research in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 577-590.
    2. Primož Južnič & Stojan Pečlin & Matjaž Žaucer & Tilen Mandelj & Miro Pušnik & Franci Demšar, 2010. "Scientometric indicators: peer-review, bibliometric methods and conflict of interests," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(2), pages 429-441, November.
    3. Jane G. Payumo & Taurean C. Sutton, 2015. "A bibliometric assessment of ASEAN collaboration in plant biotechnology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(3), pages 1043-1059, June.
    4. Hamid Bouabid & Adèle Paul-Hus & Vincent Larivière, 2016. "Scientific collaboration and high-technology exchanges among BRICS and G-7 countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 873-899, March.
    5. Balázs Győrffy & Andrea Magda Nagy & Péter Herman & Ádám Török, 2018. "Factors influencing the scientific performance of Momentum grant holders: an evaluation of the first 117 research groups," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 409-426, October.
    6. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2014. "A regression analysis of researchers’ social network metrics on their citation performance in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 667-682.

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