engleski

Policy Issues of the International Productivity and Visibility of the Social Sciences in Central and Eastern European Countries

ABSTRACT The contribution deals with the issue of the international productivity and visibility of the social sciences in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The reasons why the social sciences in CEE countries lag behind in being more internationalised stem not only from the past, but also the present. The intellectual potential of the social sciences is often neither fully acknowledged nor effectively used by different groups of social actors. There is also a lack of institutional support from R&D policy decision-makers to encourage social scientists to publish more abroad and to establish excellent networks beyond national borders. In the paper, the main focus is national R&D evaluation systems. R&D evaluation systems play a crucial role in the allocation of financial support to scientists, the promotion of individual scientific careers, ensuring disciplinary (or interdisciplinary) standards etc. Last but not least, it is impossible to fully understand the state-of-the-art in the social sciences’ international productivity and visibility in CEE countries without explaining the context of how these national R&D evaluation systems function. Some analytical data are used to illustrate the international orientation of social scientists. These data warn that the great expectations that social scientists from this part of Europe would easily “break through” into publication channels in the West and thereby have a big scientific impact have yet to be realised.

social sciences; international productivity and visibility; R&D evaluation

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