Evaluation of Scientific Publications Research Group
The Evaluation of Scientific Publications Research Group (EPUC) is part of the Institute of Documentary Studies on Science and Technology (IEDCYT) which belongs to the Centre of Human and Social Sciences (CCHS) / Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The group is dedicated to the study of scientific publications in Human and Social Sciences, particularly, in the development and application of quality indicators for scientific journals and monographs. One of the objectives of the research is to sufficiently define the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research published in Spain so that the systems of scientific evaluation consider the particularities of scientific communication in these fields without renouncing quality requirements. Another objective is to improve, by means of evaluation, the average quality of our publications.
EPUC was created in 1996 with the support of Adelaida Román, carrying out the first systematic studies on the evaluation of scientific journals in specific fields. Shortly after, Spain joined the Latindex system, and this group took charge of representing Spain in this system for journals in SSH.
During the last decade, the group has developed the journal evaluation platforms RESH and DICE (the latter financially supported by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation, ANECA). Both platforms provide quality indicators for Spanish journals in SSH areas and are useful for researchers, publishers, evaluators of scientific activity and librarians, among others. In addition, they are an essential source of information for the studies carried out by EPUC, as they permit us to recognise, for each area of knowledge or thematic area, publication practices, the extent of the validity of each indicator, the particular characteristics of each publication, the extent of compliance with standards, the editorial management applied, etc.
Currently, the main lines of research of EPUC are:
- - Direct or indirect quality indicators for Spanish journals in SSH: systems of evaluation of originals; journal visibility through international databases; openness of the editorial and advisory boards and the scientific contributions that are published; compliance with the frequency of publication established and with the standards of publication of scientific journals; impact; specialists opinion; internationality of publications, etc.
- - Scientific evaluation processes related to the various types of publications in Human and Social Sciences
- - Editorial management boards in scientific journals
- - Evaluation of scientific monographs by means of the study of publishers
- - Publication of scientific ebooks
News and updates
-- EPUC deja la representación de Latindex (2 de abril de 2013)
-- Paralización de las evaluaciones en DICE
-- Se publica "The e-book and Spanish Scientific Publishers in Social and Human Sciences"
