University Times

Administrators should not consider bibliometrics while evaluating a faculty member, cautioned Berenika M. Webster of the University Library System in a March 14 presentation to faculty. In “What Bibliometrics Tells Us About the Research Enterprise,” a precursor to yesterday’s Senate plenary session, Webster and Andrea Ketchum of the Health Sciences Library System discussed the value of quantifying scholarly work based on publication citations and fielded questions from faculty.

“You should not use these types of tools to evaluate individual performance. These are great to show you a discipline and how it changes and what is happening within a discipline,” said Webster. “When it comes to 15 publications by one person, you don’t even have statistical power behind it. You should not be doing any analysis of a set less than a hundred probably.”

The video of the workshop can be viewed at www.univsenate.pitt.edu/plenary-session-ay-2016-2017.

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The presentation provided material that was expanded on at yesterday’s Senate plenary session, “The Role of Research Metrics in Faculty Evaluation.”

Plenary session coverage will be published in the April 13 University Times.

—Katie Fike