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Predrag J. Marković, PhD
Institut for Contemporary History
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

MA Luka Filipović
Institut for Contemporary History
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

QUANTIFICATION OF RESULTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES – CITATIONS AS A MEASURE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN HISTORIOGRAPHY: THE CASE OF THE INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Vol. XXXIX, 2/2021, pp. 461–478
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2021.2.mar.461-478

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

Quantifying citations as a measure of academic achievement has been a disputed tool, not only within the Serbian academic community. Nature Magazine published “The Leiden Manifesto”, advocating harmonization between quantitative and qualitative criteria. As a contribution to such efforts, this paper examines the production of the researchers of the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade. The Institute has been chosen as the most productive institution in Serbia in terms of the number of publications. Proportionally to the number of published works in a certain language, the most frequently quoted papers have been written in German, then in French. The reason for that is the particular interest of some big academic communities for certain issues. For example, the German academic community’s curiosity for socialism derives from its interest in the German Democratic Republic, its history and its society. Papers dealing with foreign workers also address some German internal issues. Publications in French have been more often quoted if they addressed World War I topics. And last but not least, works on the Yugoslav wars of the 1990’s reflects the political and academic interest of the international community. Thus, the most quoted works often respond to the requirements of some foreign factors, such as the international community or some big national academic circles (German and French). These papers sometimes fail to address certain local educational and cultural needs. It is important to combine broader regional and international interests with internal cultural needs. Therefore, more papers should be written in foreign languages, especially in English, which is the primary language of international academic exchange.

 

KEYWORDS: Humanities, Historiography, Scientometry, Citations, Methodology, Quantitative Measurements, Visibility of Scientific Publications, Web of Science

 

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