The application of CRIS for analysing research output – problems and prospects

This presentation will focus on the use of current research information systems (CRIS) for analysing research output. During the last decades bibliometric indicators have to an increasing extent been employed in science-policy processes and research evaluations. Such indicators normally rely on data provided by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). In this case study we applied the CRIS database at a Norwegian university (University of Bergen) as an alternative source of information on scientific publishing. The main objective was to examine how well ISI-based bibliometric indicators represent the research production within various fields of learning. In addition we wanted to assess the suitability of the CRIS database as a source for bibliometric analyses, focusing on both advantages and disadvantages of such applications. Our study suggests that the CRIS database may give important additional information to output analyses based on ISI data, particularly in fields in which other publication types than international journal articles dominate, or in fields poorly covered by the ISI database. However, several methodological problems arose during our survey. The analysed CRIS database appeared to be difficult to apply for the purpose of bibliometric analyses. Although a combined approach using both ISI and CRIS data would often be of interest in output analyses, it turned out to be difficult to accomplish in practice. This was due to the fact that the CRIS database has been designed for information retrieval primarily, not for bibliometric use. In the presentation particular attention will be given to the specific problems encountered in our study. We conclude that a better database and an enhanced standardisation of item indexing are required in order to increase its applicability for such purposes. 1. Introduction Through the current research information systems (CRIS), a large amount of research data is available. Despite the increasing general interest in these systems, they have rarely been applied in the context of bibliometric analyses. In this presentation the question of the suitability of CRIS as a source for bibliometric analyses will be addressed more carefully. The basis for our study is the CRIS database at a Norwegian university (The University of Bergen). A new national system for research documentation is now in course of preparation in Norway. Some institutions of higher education have for several years applied a CRIS system at a local level (FORSKDOK), and the database analysed in our study is a part of this system. In addition to a project …