DOCSLIB.ORG

WHITE PAPER Using Bibliometrics in Evaluating Research

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WHITE PAPER Using Bibliometrics in Evaluating Research WHITE PAPER USING BIBLIOMETRICS IN EVALUATING RESEARCH DAVID A. PENDLEBURY RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, THOMSON REUTERS, PHILADELPHIA, PA USA SCIENTIFIC INTRODUCTION: THE MAIN TOOL OF SCIENCE Counting, measuring, comparing quantities, analyzing measurements: quantitative analysis, as Lord Kelvin’s famous observation suggests, is perhaps the main tool of science. In this century, the volume of scientific research— measuring to “know something”—and recording and communicating that knowledge through publications, has itself become enormous and complex. Science research is now such a large enterprise and the substance of scientific research is so complex and specialized that personal knowledge and experience are no longer sufficient tools for understanding trends or for making decisions. “IF YOU CAN MEASURE Yet, the need to be selective, to highlight significant their colleagues should rightly be the basis of research THAT OF WHICH YOU or promising areas of research, and to manage better evaluation. However, it should be one of several SPEAK, AND CAN investments in science is only increasing. Around the approaches to making decisions. For the inevitable bias EXPRESS IT BY A world, the purses of government, industry, education in peer review, whether intentional or inadvertent, is NUMBER, YOU KNOW and philanthropy have not grown as fast as science. widely recognized as a confounding factor in efforts to SOMETHING OF YOUR Those in universities, government offices and labs, and judge the quality of research. SUBJECT; BUT IF YOU boardrooms face pressing questions about what should BIBLIOMETRICS CANNOT MEASURE IT, be supported and what should not, or which research One such approach is bibliometrics (sometimes called YOUR KNOWLEDGE projects and researchers should receive more support scientometrics). Bibliometrics turns the main tool of IS MEAGER AND than others. science, quantitative analysis, on itself. At its most UNSATISFACTORY.” Achievements in industry can often be tracked directly fundamental, this approach to research evaluation is by counting patents and measuring, in terms of sales simply counting. The complexity is in the analysis and William Thomson, Lord Kelvin revenues, the commercial success of discoveries as they use of the numbers, for the statistics obtained can be move from the laboratory to the marketplace. However, understood as indicators of achievement or lack thereof. the achievements and trends in science are not so easily Quantitative evaluation of publication and citation data counted. And so, until relatively recently, peer review is now used in almost all nations around the globe with has been the main route by which science policymakers a sizeable science enterprise. Bibliometrics is used in and research funders have coped with decisions on what research performance evaluation, especially in university course to set for science. and government labs, and also by policymakers, However, the ever-increasing size and specialized nature research directors and administrators, information of research today makes it difficult for a small group of specialists and librarians, and researchers themselves. experts to evaluate fully and fairly the bewildering array The Development of Publication and of research, both that accomplished and that proposed. Citation Analysis A library faced with collection decisions, a foundation There are, of course, many activities and outcomes making funding choices, or a government office weighing of research that can be counted. Perhaps the most national research needs must rely on expert analysis of basic and common is number of publications, which scientific research performance. may be used as a measure of output. Citations, the Peer review still represents the standard approach to references researchers append to their papers to show research evaluation and decisions about allocating explicitly earlier work on which they have depended resources for science. Experts reviewing the work of to conduct their own investigations, shows how others . USING BIBLIOMETRICS use a work in subsequent research. Tracking citations • Weighted quantitative measures, such as papers and understanding their trends in context is a key to per researcher or citations per paper, remove evaluating the impact and influence of research. characteristics, such as the place of production, or past reputation, that color human A citation index for science was first described in 1955 by perceptions of quality. Eugene Garfield, the founder and chairman emeritus of what was then ISI, in the journal Science. He realized his For example, when we think of “the best,” it is hard vision a few years later with the production of the 1961 not to think automatically of the biggest producers, Science Citation Index®. such as individuals, labs, and universities; but those locations might not be the source of the most The original and continuing main purpose of Garfield’s important work. Likewise, quantitative research citation database is improved or expanded information analysis indicates current top performers, thus retrieval. By recording not only bibliographic information balancing human perceptions of reputation. on the journal articles covered but also the cited references in these journal articles, Dr. Garfield offered The Growing Use of Bibliometrics researchers a way to find articles relevant to their work For these reasons and others, nations with significant that they would not otherwise turn up by searching science enterprises have embraced bibliometrics. Today, author names, title words, or subject headings alone. bibliometrics programs with large teams of analysts are firmly established in many nations, and these groups The operating principle of a citation index is this: If a issue bibliometric reports, often called science indicators researcher knows of a publication important to his or studies, at regular intervals. her work, a citation index would allow the researcher to identify journal articles published subsequent to that A few such groups are the National Science Foundation work that cited it. On the assumption that the citing (United States); the European Commission; and journal article is related in some way to the substance Japan’s National Institute for Informatics (NII), National of the cited work, the user of the citation index may, Institute for Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), as it were, search forward in time to uncover studies of and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). interest potentially profitable for the researcher’s work. Other nations with active bibliometrics groups include Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Finland, France, It did not escape Garfield’s notice that such a database Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, could serve other purposes as well, such as monitoring Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and analyzing the structure and growth of science. Switzerland, and Taiwan. In almost all cases, the Others, too, saw this possibility. Among them are the publication and citation data of Thomson Reuters form historian of science Derek J. de Solla Price, author of the basis of their bibliometric analyses. the 1963 classic Little Science, Big Science, and the sociologists of science Robert K. Merton, Jonathan TEN RULES FOR USING PUBLICatiON and Stephen Cole, Warren Hagstrom, and Diana AND CitatiON ANALYSIS Crane. Francis Narin of CHI Research in the United In light of science’s ever-growing complexity and the States was also an early proponent and pioneer in challenge of rationing limited resources, government using ISI publication and citation data to analyze policymakers, managers, and others turn to quantitative science, particularly through his influential Evaluative analysis of research to help make their task easier. Bibliometrics of 1976. However, employing quantitative indicators of research The combination of an ever-growing corpus of performance adds an extra burden to decision-makers: publication and citation data compiled by ISI over the they must strive to define clearly the data they need and 1960s and 1970s and the simultaneous increase in work to understand the significance of the analyses.T his computing power and software applications, especially extra effort is necessary and worthwhile, both for the those developed in the 1980s and 1990s, has made greater understanding and practical help the data offer, bibliometrics a practical and even cost-effective pursuit. as well as for the beneficial effect of the data: adding fairness to evaluation and helping to prevent abuses Bibliometrics and Peer Judgment: that may arise from small-scale, closed peer review. A Two-Pronged Approach Never in its long history has ISI, now Thomson Reuters, It is important to understand what quantitative research advocated that bibliometrics supercede or replace peer analysis offers evaluators and decision makers—and judgements. Rather, publication and citation analysis what it cannot possibly deliver. For these techniques or is meant to be a supplement to peer review. The two tools can never be a substitute for human judgment. It is together—peer review and quantitative analysis of important that measurement and judgment be used in research—better inform evaluation and decisions. tandem, and that the quantitative tools are For quantitative analysis offers certain advantages used appropriately. in gathering the objective information necessary to Numbers alone can be dangerous because they decision-making: have the appearance of being authoritative.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jackson: Choosing a Methodology: Philosophical Underpinning
    JACKSON: CHOOSING A METHODOLOGY: PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNING Choosing a Methodology: Philosophical Practitioner Research Underpinning In Higher Education Copyright © 2013 University of Cumbria Vol 7 (1) pages 49-62 Elizabeth Jackson University of Cumbria [email protected] Abstract As a university lecturer, I find that a frequent question raised by Masters students concerns the methodology chosen for research and the rationale required in dissertations. This paper unpicks some of the philosophical coherence that can inform choices to be made regarding methodology and a well-thought out rationale that can add to the rigour of a research project. It considers the conceptual framework for research including the ontological and epistemological perspectives that are pertinent in choosing a methodology and subsequently the methods to be used. The discussion is exemplified using a concrete example of a research project in order to contextualise theory within practice. Key words Ontology; epistemology; positionality; relationality; methodology; method. Introduction This paper arises from work with students writing Masters dissertations who frequently express confusion and doubt about how appropriate methodology is chosen for research. It will be argued here that consideration of philosophical underpinning can be crucial for both shaping research design and for explaining approaches taken in order to support credibility of research outcomes. It is beneficial, within the unique context of the research, for the researcher to carefully
    [Show full text]
  • Science, Technology, Policy Fellowship Program Step Into Our Community and Shape Science for Society!
    STeP Science, Technology, Policy Fellowship Program Step into our community and shape science for society! A LANDMARK PROGRAM OF THE INTER-AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH (IAI) 2021 IAI WHO WE ARE The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) is an intergovernmental organization supported by 19 countries in the Americas, dedicated to pursuing the principles of scientific excellence, international cooperation, capacity building, and the full and open exchange of scientific information to increase the understanding of global change phenomena and their social-economic implications. The IAI enables a well-informed, inclusive and sustainable America, which collaboratively meets the challenges posed by global change by supporting flexible science-based policies and actions. History of the IAI In 1992, 12 nations of the Americas came together in Montevideo, Uruguay to establish the IAI. The 12 governments, in the Declaration of Montevideo, called for the Institute to develop the best possible international coordination of scientific and economic research of global change in the Americas. Since then, 7 additional nations have acceded to the treaty, and the IAI has now 19 parties in the Americas. IAI INTER-AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, POLICY FELLOWSHIP The Science, Technology, Policy (STeP) Fellowship Program is an innovative landmark program of the IAI to enhance human and institutional capacities in IAI member countries and to support the provision of expert scientific advice to policy makers for the development of public policy relevant to global change. Fellows in the STeP program are placed at host government or private organizations to engage first-hand with policy and decision-makers and facilitate the uptake of scientific knowledge into policy processes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rhetoric of Positivism Versus Interpretivism: a Personal View1
    Weber/Editor’s Comments EDITOR’S COMMENTS The Rhetoric of Positivism Versus Interpretivism: A Personal View1 Many years ago I attended a conference on interpretive research in information systems. My goal was to learn more about interpretive research. In my Ph.D. education, I had studied primarily positivist research methods—for example, experiments, surveys, and field studies. I knew little, however, about interpretive methods. I hoped to improve my knowledge of interpretive methods with a view to using them in due course in my research work. A plenary session at the conference was devoted to a panel discussion on improving the acceptance of interpretive methods within the information systems discipline. During the session, a number of speakers criticized positivist research harshly. Many members in the audience also took up the cudgel to denigrate positivist research. If any other positivistic researchers were present at the session beside me, like me they were cowed. None of us dared to rise and speak in defence of positivism. Subsequently, I came to understand better the feelings of frustration and disaffection that many early interpretive researchers in the information systems discipline experienced when they attempted to publish their work. They felt that often their research was evaluated improperly and treated unfairly. They contended that colleagues who lacked knowledge of interpretive research methods controlled most of the journals. As a result, their work was evaluated using criteria attuned to positivism rather than interpretivism. My most-vivid memory of the panel session, however, was my surprise at the way positivism was being characterized by my colleagues in the session.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comprehensive Framework to Reinforce Evidence Synthesis Features in Cloud-Based Systematic Review Tools
    applied sciences Article A Comprehensive Framework to Reinforce Evidence Synthesis Features in Cloud-Based Systematic Review Tools Tatiana Person 1,* , Iván Ruiz-Rube 1 , José Miguel Mota 1 , Manuel Jesús Cobo 1 , Alexey Tselykh 2 and Juan Manuel Dodero 1 1 Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Cadiz, 11519 Puerto Real, Spain; [email protected] (I.R.-R.); [email protected] (J.M.M.); [email protected] (M.J.C.); [email protected] (J.M.D.) 2 Department of Information and Analytical Security Systems, Institute of Computer Technologies and Information Security, Southern Federal University, 347922 Taganrog, Russia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Systematic reviews are powerful methods used to determine the state-of-the-art in a given field from existing studies and literature. They are critical but time-consuming in research and decision making for various disciplines. When conducting a review, a large volume of data is usually generated from relevant studies. Computer-based tools are often used to manage such data and to support the systematic review process. This paper describes a comprehensive analysis to gather the required features of a systematic review tool, in order to support the complete evidence synthesis process. We propose a framework, elaborated by consulting experts in different knowledge areas, to evaluate significant features and thus reinforce existing tool capabilities. The framework will be used to enhance the currently available functionality of CloudSERA, a cloud-based systematic review Citation: Person, T.; Ruiz-Rube, I.; Mota, J.M.; Cobo, M.J.; Tselykh, A.; tool focused on Computer Science, to implement evidence-based systematic review processes in Dodero, J.M.
    [Show full text]
  • Red Letters, White Paper, Black Ink: Race, Writing, Colors, and Characters in 1850S America
    Red Letters, White Paper, Black Ink: Race, Writing, Colors, and Characters in 1850s America Samuel Arrowsmith Turner Portland, Maine B.A., Vassar College, 1997 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Virginia August, 2013 ii Abstract It’s well known that both the idea of race and the idea of writing acquired new kinds of importance for Americans in the mid-nineteenth century. Less obvious has been the extent to which the relationship between the two ideas, each charged by antebellum America with an ever-broader range of ideological functions, has itself served for some authors both as an object of inquiry and as a politico-aesthetic vocabulary. “White Paper, Black Ink, Red Letters” concerns this race-writing dialectic, and takes as its point of departure the fact that both writing and race depend on a priori notions of visibility and materiality to which each nonetheless is – or seems to be – irreducible. That is, though any given utterance of racial embodiment or alphabetic inscription becomes intelligible by its materialization as part of a field of necessarily visible signifiers (whether shapes of letters or racially encoded features of the body) the power of any such signifier to organize or regulate experience depends on its perceived connection to a separate domain of invisible meanings. iii For many nineteenth-century Americans race offered an increasingly persuasive narrative of identity at a time when the self-evidence of class, gender, and nationality as modes of affiliation seemed to be waning.
    [Show full text]
  • How Can Citation Impact in Bibliometrics Be Normalized?
    RESEARCH ARTICLE How can citation impact in bibliometrics be normalized? A new approach combining citing-side normalization and citation percentiles an open access journal Lutz Bornmann Division for Science and Innovation Studies, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Hofgartenstr. 8, 80539 Munich, Germany Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/qss/article-pdf/1/4/1553/1871000/qss_a_00089.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Keywords: bibliometrics, citation analysis, citation percentiles, citing-side normalization Citation: Bornmann, L. (2020). How can citation impact in bibliometrics be normalized? A new approach ABSTRACT combining citing-side normalization and citation percentiles. Quantitative Since the 1980s, many different methods have been proposed to field-normalize citations. In this Science Studies, 1(4), 1553–1569. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00089 study, an approach is introduced that combines two previously introduced methods: citing-side DOI: normalization and citation percentiles. The advantage of combining two methods is that their https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00089 advantages can be integrated in one solution. Based on citing-side normalization, each citation Received: 8 May 2020 is field weighted and, therefore, contextualized in its field. The most important advantage of Accepted: 30 July 2020 citing-side normalization is that it is not necessary to work with a specific field categorization scheme for the normalization procedure. The disadvantages of citing-side normalization—the Corresponding Author: Lutz Bornmann calculation is complex and the numbers are elusive—can be compensated for by calculating [email protected] percentiles based on weighted citations that result from citing-side normalization. On the one Handling Editor: hand, percentiles are easy to understand: They are the percentage of papers published in the Ludo Waltman same year with a lower citation impact.
    [Show full text]
  • A Mixed Methods Bibliometric Study
    The Qualitative Report Volume 24 Number 12 Article 2 12-2-2019 Collaboration Patterns as a Function of Research Experience Among Mixed Researchers: A Mixed Methods Bibliometric Study Melanie S. Wachsmann Sam Houston State University, [email protected] Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie Sam Houston State University, [email protected] Susan Hoisington Sam Houston State University, [email protected] Vanessa Gonzales Sam Houston State University, [email protected] Rachael Wilcox Sam Houston State University, [email protected] See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr Part of the Education Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, and the Social Statistics Commons Recommended APA Citation Wachsmann, M. S., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Hoisington, S., Gonzales, V., Wilcox, R., Valle, R., & Aleisa, M. (2019). Collaboration Patterns as a Function of Research Experience Among Mixed Researchers: A Mixed Methods Bibliometric Study. The Qualitative Report, 24(12), 2954-2979. https://doi.org/10.46743/ 2160-3715/2019.3852 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Qualitative Report at NSUWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Qualitative Report by an authorized administrator of NSUWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Collaboration Patterns as a Function of Research Experience Among Mixed Researchers: A Mixed Methods Bibliometric Study Abstract Onwuegbuzie et al. (2018) documented that the degree of collaboration is higher for mixed researchers than for qualitative and quantitative researchers. The present investigation examined the (a) link between the research experience of lead authors and their propensity to collaborate (Quantitative Phase), and (b) role of research experience in collaborative mixed research studies (Qualitative Phase).
    [Show full text]
  • The Privilege to Select. Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation
    The Privilege to Select Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation Schmidt, Nora DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4011296 2020 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Schmidt, N. (2020). The Privilege to Select: Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation. Lund University, Faculties of Humanities and Theology. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4011296 Total number of authors: 1 Creative Commons License: CC BY General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Download date: 06. Oct. 2021 The Privilege to Select To European social sciences and humanities researchers, substantial parts of potentially relevant literature published in the “Global South” are invisible.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons from the History of UK Science Policy
    Lessons from the History of UK Science Policy August 2019 2 Science Policy History Foreword The British Academy is the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences. Our purpose is to deepen understanding of people, societies and cultures, enabling everyone to learn, progress and prosper. The Academy inspires, supports and promotes outstanding achievement and global advances in the humanities and social sciences. We are a fellowship of over 1000 of the most outstanding academics, an international community of leading experts focused on people, culture and societies, and are the voice for the humanities and social sciences.1 The British Academy aims to use insights from the past and the present to help shape the future, by influencing policy and affecting change in the UK and overseas. Given this, the Academy is well-placed to bring humanities and social science insight from the past into policymaking for the present and the future. One way to do this is in using historical insights to inform policymaking – ‘looking back to look forward’. To support these efforts, the Academy’s public policy team in collaboration with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has undertaken a new programme of work on policy histories. The policy histories series develop historical analyses for individual policy areas. These analyses are used to provide: • a structured, rigorous and objective account of the history of a given policy area and the significance of key milestones in context, • an informed basis for analysis and insights from the timelines as well as dialogue and discussion about what history can tell us about the future.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Download Starting with Science Strategies for Introducing Young Children to Inquiry 1St Edition Ebook
    STARTING WITH SCIENCE STRATEGIES FOR INTRODUCING YOUNG CHILDREN TO INQUIRY 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Marcia Talhelm Edson | 9781571108074 | | | | | Starting with Science Strategies for Introducing Young Children to Inquiry 1st edition PDF Book The presentation of the material is as good as the material utilizing star trek analogies, ancient wisdom and literature and so much more. Using Multivariate Statistics. Michael Gramling examines the impact of policy on practice in early childhood education. Part of a series on. Schauble and colleagues , for example, found that fifth grade students designed better experiments after instruction about the purpose of experimentation. For example, some suggest that learning about NoS enables children to understand the tentative and developmental NoS and science as a human activity, which makes science more interesting for children to learn Abd-El-Khalick a ; Driver et al. Research on teaching and learning of nature of science. The authors begin with theory in a cultural context as a foundation. What makes professional development effective? Frequently, the term NoS is utilised when considering matters about science. This book is a documentary account of a young intern who worked in the Reggio system in Italy and how she brought this pedagogy home to her school in St. Taking Science to School answers such questions as:. The content of the inquiries in science in the professional development programme was based on the different strands of the primary science curriculum, namely Living Things, Energy and Forces, Materials and Environmental Awareness and Care DES Exit interview. Begin to address the necessity of understanding other usually peer positions before they can discuss or comment on those positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Mhra Style Guide for School of English Students
    MHRA STYLE GUIDE FOR SCHOOL OF ENGLISH STUDENTS INTRODUCTORY VERSION ENGLISH LITERATURE PROGRAMME (Footnote Style) ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS PROGRAMME (Author Date Style) English Literature Modules What do you want to produce? A citation to be placed in a footnote A reference to a book A reference to a chapter in a book A reference to an article in a journal A bibliography entry A reference to a book A reference to a chapter in a book A reference to an article in a journal If your source is a book prepare your FOOTNOTE citation exactly as follows Joe Bray, The Epistolary Novel: Representations of Consciousness (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 30. Things to get right, in order: • Author’s name as it appears on the book’s titlepage, followed by comma and a space • Full title of the book, in italics, with capital letters where appropriate, then a space • Brackets containing the publisher data with exact punctuation as follows -- (City: Publisher, Year) • These brackets are followed by a comma, then a space • The page number of your citation displayed accurately: p. followed by a space then the number. More than one page is presented like this: pp. 230-31 • Finish footnotes with a full stop. table of contents If your source is a titled essay in a book prepare your FOOTNOTE citation exactly as follows: Sue Owen, 'The Lost Rhetoric of Liberty: Marvell and Restoration Drama', in Marvell and Liberty, ed. by W. Chernaik and M. Dzelzainis (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999), pp. 334-53 (p. 334). Things to get right, in order: • Author’s name as it appears on the essay’s titlepage, followed by comma and a space • Full title of the article, in single inverted commas, with capital letters where appropriate, then a comma and the word in • Full title of the book in italics followed by a comma and the phrase ed.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is a Science Diplomat?
    The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 15 (2020) 409-423 brill.com/hjd What Is a Science Diplomat? Lorenzo Melchor Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), Madrid, Spain; former FECYT Science Adviser in the Spanish Embassy in London, United Kingdom [email protected] Received: 22 May 2020; revised: 4 July 2020; accepted: 21 July 2020 Summary The COVID-19 crisis has shown how countries initially responded to a global chal- lenge on their own, instead of relying on a multilateral science diplomacy — based response. Although, science diplomacy has received great attention for the past de- cade, its meaning and the nature of the diverse practitioners involved remain elusive. Science diplomacy is a transboundary field sitting across national borders, policy frameworks and stakeholders of all natures and professional backgrounds. But what is a science diplomat? What science diplomacy roles formally exist? Who can become a science diplomat? What knowledge and skills are required? This practitioner’s essay proposes a typology of science diplomacy practitioners who bring science, technology, innovation, foreign policy and the international political system altogether closer in either institutionalised or non-institutionalised roles, and it also provides guidance for pursuing a career in science diplomacy. These science diplomats may promote na- tional competitiveness but also facilitate multilateral responses to global challenges. Keywords science diplomacy – science diplomat – science counsellor – science attaché – science adviser – science advice – science-policy interface – knowledge diplomacy – COVID-19 © Lorenzo Melchor, 2020 | doi:10.1163/1871191X-bja10026 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0Downloaded license. from Brill.com10/01/2021 11:43:18AM via free access 410 Melchor 1 Introduction1 The COVID-19 outbreak has caused a profound global public health and socio- economic crisis.
    [Show full text]