The 4th Workshop of the Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS) took place at ETH Zurich on 25 April 2024. The diverse audience included 25 participants from different European universities and Swiss institutions (Universities of Bern, Fribourg, St. Gallen and Zurich, ZHAW, Eawag-Empa, EPFL, ETH Zurich and ETH Board, Armasuisse, Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries, and FORS). SYoS could win Sven Hug from the Swiss Science Council to chair the event. Karen Tinsner-Fuchs from the University of St. Gallen and David Johann from ETH Zurich co-hosted the workshop.
The workshop’s goal was to envision a suitable infrastructure and organisation for scientometrics in Switzerland that promotes metrics literacy and ensures the quality and the reliability of scientometric data.
SYoS also welcomed Prof. Ludo Waltman from CWTS in Leiden for a keynote lecture on 24 April 2024. Prof. Waltman made a convincing case that transparent and open science requires transparent and open evaluation of science. Many of the workshop participants interpreted the lecture’s key statement as a suggestion in favour of standardized data formats or even a centralized data infrastructure.
Inspiring Lighting Talks
Three inspiring lightning talks on the development of bibliometric services in three European countries kicked off the workshop:
- Bart Thijs (KU Leuven, Belgium) gave an overview of bibliometric services, data-sharing initiatives, and collaborative networks for the Flemish Region of Belgium. He made a case for evaluating research organisations according to indicators that were specifically tailored to the respective organisation’s research agendas:
ECOOM: bibliometric services for the Flemish Government - Birger Larsen (Aalborg University, Denmark) emphasized the need for standardized data formats indicating that data need to be comparable across universities and countries:
Recovering from the guillotine – Hydra-based construction of a new institution-level performance-based development framework for Aalborg University - Wenceslao Arroyo Machado (University of Granada, Spain) highlighted the role of bibliometric services at Spanish universities as a means of documenting the progress of their individual research agendas:
Scientometric infrastructure in Spain: the role of Bibliometric Units
Group discussion on scenarios for Switzerland
Following a short break, the workshop participants discussed scenarios for possible collaboration on the topic of bibliometrics in Switzerland in dedicated groups. Each group focused on one of the following five scenarios: 1) informal network, 2) leading house 3) consortium, 4) not-for-profit and 5) for-profit competence center.
The goal of the group discussions was to describe the objectives and characteristics of the respective scenario and to highlight the potential advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, they were asked to discuss challenges relating to the implementation of the strategies, e.g. opportunities and risks, but also time, finances, sustainability, stakeholders, and steps for further action. All arguments were collected to make the scenario easily digestible for decision-makers highlighting potential role models outside the Swiss context.
In the final session, each group presented their results to the plenum. Some of the key findings are that formal collaboration would be beneficial (a) to share knowledge and expertise, (b) to avoid duplication and thus reduce costs, (c) to set standards and establish guidelines for the responsible use of bibliometrics, and (d) to develop scientometric indicators for the Swiss context.
A closing discussion focused on the preferences of individual participants and their affiliated institutions. Most participants articulated that they are in favour of a more formal collaboration on bibliometrics in Switzerland, with a consortium solution (1) or a non-profit competence center (2) as the most preferred solutions.
An aperitif allowed everyone to continue discussing the topics in a relaxed atmosphere.
The SYoS project team would like to thank all participants for sharing their perspectives and for the very fruitful and stimulating discussions that made this workshop a success.
