Abstract

In 2011, the research programmes for Support and accreditation of Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence and Units of Excellence María de Maeztu were launched for the first time. Since then, these accreditations have become one of the axes of the Spanish scientific policy. In these years, € 186 million have been distributed and 26 centers and 16 units have been accredited. At the bibliometric level, one of the most relevant evaluation criteria is the need for guarantor researchers to have a Normalized Impact of, at least, 1.5. In this work, we critically analyze the origin of this bibliometric indicator in the eighties, the variants that have been proposed and the limitations of its use in this national call. Finally we offer a series of practical recommendations for a more accurate use of the Normalized Impact indicator for evaluative purposes.

Abstract

This is a kind of conceptual document, and at the same time a reflection, but also something more, an act of provocation in the form of a piece of theater that shows a reality, something dramatic and comical at the same time, as is the panorama ofour research. It also includes a good portion of humor, but the kind of humor the great writer and thinker Luigi Pirandello defined as „the one that does not provoke the immediate laughter, but only pulls a smile behind which hides the bitter taste of the absurd or the unbearable lightness of our existence.“ This piece of theater, short and concise so as not to bore anyone, narrates the efforts that are required daily, as well as the situations created, to carry out the task –which is perhaps a utopia- of trying to measure something that is incommensurable, as is science on the part of those who are dedicated to its evaluation or to the study of its development. In this comedy, all actors involved, both protagonists and the indicators themselves, have the opportunity to present their hopes and fears, their merits and their complaints, their recommendations and warnings. They narrate the search for a path in a jungle in which the world of information has been converted, that is practicable, augurs a promising future for science, and allows us a more just interpretation.