Research quality criteria in the evaluation of books

In the Italian context of research evaluation, research output in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) presents problematic issues in classification, particularly for the Humanities. In the case of the Italian context, in fact, the SSH area features an extremely varied spectrum of disciplinary domains. The Italian national evaluation system for the Humanities applies a system in which research results are classified in correspondingly varied manner, based on the disciplinary affiliation of the researcher. This has problematic consequences in terms of increasing the numbers of items included in the classification, and still more severe ones concerning the quality criteria to be applied to each item. A particularly critical issue is that the criteria vary depending on the disciplinary domain under evaluation. Beginning from an illustration of the problems specific to the Italian context, the chapter proceeds to a comparative analysis of the research quality criteria for books in the SSH area as applied in several countries and international contexts. The analysis adopts a methodological approach that can be applied to assessment of other national and international classification systems, leading towards a shared European response to the problem of evaluation, in particular for books and book parts. The investigation articulates the dimensions of quality identified in both literature and practice, and offers a structured framework for analysis of the role of books in the evaluation process. The discourse is based on the case of the Italian SSH disciplinary domains and national evaluation exercise, which can be broadened to international and other national SSH research domains and, although the chapter deals with overall SSH, the discussion focuses on the Humanities. The Italian experience in this area is particularly strong, given the uniquely long history of the research area and its ramified development. The sources selected for analysis are the international ISO standards, national guidelines from Spain, Australia and New Zealand, and Italian academic classifications from the University of Turin and University of Bologna. The comparison is based on the classification of books and monographs as practiced under Italian national guidelines for research assessment.