The evaluation of research in the Humanities: a comparative analysis

This paper presents the objectives, the methodologies and the preliminary results of an in-progress investigation into the evaluation of research in the humanities, through experimentation in philologicalliterary and historical-artistic sciences, utilizing the University of Rome Sapienza institutional database, which systematically collects scientifically produced data of the teaching and research staff of the University. The premise of the survey is that the humanities do not enjoy a special status by virtue of which it can be exempt from bibliometric analysis: internal quality of the research itself, the impact and the importance in the scientific community are all characteristics which belong to the physical sciences as well as to the humanities. The objective of the research is to develop some tools for evaluating the research that are consistent with the evaluation criteria used in the physical sciences, through the integration of quantitative, qualitative and biblioteconomic tools.