SYoS Lecture no 4

Openness of research information - Democratizing the use of scientometrics

In his talk, Prof Ludo Waltman will discuss ongoing developments in the Netherlands, where universities and other research organizations are making a large-scale concerted effort to promote responsible research assessment and open science. A key issue at the heart of these developments is the transition to new approaches to scientometrics. Of particular interest are scientometric approaches based on open research information, that is, open information about the inputs and outputs of the research process, the actors participating in the research process, and the activities these actors undertake. Open research information allows scientometric analyses to be performed in fully transparent and reproducible ways. It democratizes the use of scientometrics and supports richer and more flexible approaches to scientometrics. Ludo Waltman will demonstrate the value of open research information by presenting the new Open Edition of the CWTS Leiden Ranking, launched in January 2024. He will also discuss how universities and other research organizations can join the transition to open research information, for instance by supporting the Declaration on Open Research Information.

Short Bio of Professor Ludo Waltman
Ludo Waltman is scientific director and professor of Quantitative Science Studies at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University. He is affiliated as senior research fellow with the Research on Research Institute (RoRI). His work focuses on studying and developing infrastructures, algorithms, and tools to support research assessment, science policy, and scholarly communication. Furthermore, he is open science ambassador of Leiden University, member of the board of ASAPbio, chair of the advisory board of OpenCitations, and coordinator of the Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA). Together with his colleague Nees Jan van Eck, he has developed the well-known VOSviewer software for bibliometric visualization. He is coordinator of the CWTS Leiden Ranking, a bibliometric ranking of major universities worldwide. In addition, he served as Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Quantitative Science Studies.