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Rebeca Cliffe, Research Assessment Exercise: Bowing Out In Favor of Metrics, EPS Insights, April 3, 2006 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt:
The move to a new metrics based system will no doubt please those who see a role for institutional repositories in monitoring research quality. The online environment has thrown up new metrics, which could be used alongside traditional measures such as citations. Usage can be measured at the point of consumption - the number of 'hits' on a particular article can indicate the uptake of the research. Web usage would be expected to be an early indicator of how often the article is later cited. Some believe that institutional repositories should be used as the basis for ongoing assessment of all UK peer-reviewed research output by mandating that researchers should place material in repositories. They argue that this would allow usage to be measured earlier, through downloads of both pre-prints and post-prints. Of course, this course of action would also advance the cause of open access by making this research available free. |