For nearly a decade, several national exercises have been implemented for assessing the Italian research performance, from the viewpoint of universities and other research institutions. The penultimate one – i.e., the VQR 2004–2010, which adopted a hybrid evaluation approach based on bibliometric analysis and peer review – suffered heavy criticism at a national and international level. The arch...

In recent decades, higher education has witnessed the development of a series policies aimed at improving its quality. To this end, accountability measures have been promoted, which are having major impact on academics. addition, precariousness work in professional sector is contributing to emphasise consequences. context, early career researchers become highly vulnerable group, as pretence wan...

Existing norms for scientific communication are rooted in anachronistic practices of bygone eras, making them needlessly inefficient. We outline a path that moves away from the existing model of scientific communication to improve the efficiency in meeting the purpose of public science – knowledge accumulation. We call for six changes: (1) full embrace of digital communication, (2) open access ...