Fudan-LSE Lecture Series No.5

THE SPEAKER

Vincent Larivière holds the Canada Research Chair on the Transformations of Scholarly Communication at the Université de Montréal, where he is associate professor of information science. He is also scientific director of the Érudit journal platform, associate scientific director of the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST) and regular member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST). Vincent holds a bachelor’s in Science, Technology and Society (UQAM), a master’s degree in history of science (UQAM) and a Ph.D. in information science (McGill), for which he received the 2009 Eugene Garfield Dissertation Scholarship award.

ABSTRACT

Since the creation the Science Citation Index in the 1960s, research indicators have become ubiquitous. They are profusely used by universities, policymakers and even researchers for evaluation purposes—often without having a clear idea of what is being measured. This talk will first provide an overview of research indicators and of their limitations, and discuss some of the adverse effects of the most well-known indicator, the Impact Factor. It will then address the current transformations of scholarly communication, with an emphasis on the role of journals and of open access in this new digital ecosystem, and conclude with implications for journals, funders, universities and researchers.