Assessing Scientific Research

[Karen Wilson]

     Assessing the output and impact of scientific research is becoming
     increasingly important for scientific organisations everywhere,
     including here.
     Does anyone have any comments on what they have found to be useful
     assessment methods, particularly in the area of performance
     indicators? How, for example, have people found ways to go beyond such
     crude quantitative measures as number of refereed papers/pages
     published?
     If people send their comments direct to me, I will summarise them for
     TAXACOM - unless people feel that it is a matter of broad interest and
     therefore wish to put their comments straight on TAXACOM.
     Cheers
     Karen Wilson

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          Karen L. Wilson
          Royal Botanic Gardens               E-mail: karen at rbgsyd.gov.au
          Mrs Macquaries Road                 Fax: 61-2-*9251.7231
          SYDNEY   NSW 2000, AUSTRALIA        Phone: 61-2-*9231.8137

          * From late July 1996, the '9' has been added in front of the
          existing numbers (all Sydney phone numbers beginning with '2' to
          '8' changed then (those beginning with '9' changed last year - in
          fact, all Australian numbers are gradually being altered over the
          next few years so that we will only have 4 area codes in the
          country))