Scientometrics, economists and labor market reform

According to a recent European Commission study, Spain is the European Union country has the highest unemployment rate (18'7% in May according to data from Eurostat) doubling the average. In fact, the destruction of jobs in our country has been so accelerated (has made one in two newly unemployed in the EU-15 in April) from different forums that has proposed the need for a reform to try to revive the economy and reduce unemployment.

One of these forums is what FEDEA (Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada) that last April presented a manifesto signed by 100 economists from suggesting a series of measures for boosting employment. This text was replicated by another signed by 755 labor law experts, academics and sociologists, and subsequently joined the main unions, which sought to refute the thesis FEDEA and considered that the crisis was not caused by the Current labor laws. Finally, the 100 economists have tried to thwart the thesis defended by the 755 experts (and specifically 189 economists) presenting the academic level of each others, forming what some have described as "war. And how do you measure the academic level and their level of influence? Through Scientometrics.

Scientometrics is the science of measuring and analyzing science. In practice, scientometrics is often developed through Bibliometrics dedicated to analyze the behavior patterns of citations that are made in scientific work, its impact within the Science and the level of influence of researchers, institutions and publications.

Therefore, the 100 economists showed the results of his scientific papers (number of articles published and number of citations received) against those of another manifesto drawn from bibliometric databases developed by the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information), specifically the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Quite simply, what they were trying to emphasize is their level of influence within the scientific field of economics with the group of 755.

However, keep in absolute numbers of articles published and citations received may be too simplistic, since the assessment institutions of science using a series of indicators to assess the scientific relevance of a researcher, institution or publication. For example, the relevance of a journal would be determined by their impact factor, but not all publications can be compared directly, since depending on the area of Science covering have very specific characteristics. For researchers, the major indicators are varied, but currently using h-index that, despite the controversy which has sparked wide for its simplicity and the need for correction, remains the most accepted (the ISI is calculated by default for each author).

As you can see, the Scientometrics and Bibliometrics are disciplines that would arouse some interest in the researchers and the institutions they work for. Primarily when developing projects, since the evaluation indicators of the quality of scientific research each will increasingly have greater role, so that their knowledge should be the concern of both researchers and technical staff institutions.

Given this, AIDICO next to one of the most important research groups in the Scientometrics research in Spain, EC3, University of Granada, organized in Valencia, so next month November, two workshops for the introduction Bibliometrics targeted to two different target audiences: technical staff and researchers, all those who are just beginning in this world are invited.