Constructing a synthetic indicator of research activity

There are increasing demands on universities to operate transparently with regard how resources are being used and targets met, putting them under growing pressure to clarify their position relative to other universities at national and international level. But there are several challenges associated with establishing their relative positioning. The first issue is concerned with measurement or how to capture data that are relevant, pertinent and fit-for-purpose. Second, universities must obtain an overall indicator or a means of ordering that helps synthesize the different indicators; and, third, they must decide how to weight them. Those university rankings that attempt to address these questions are met with a degree of criticism for being subjective or inconsistent in their quantification of the indicators. The aim of the present work is to develop a procedure for synthesizing all of the indicators relating to the objective measurement of university R&D and innovation into a single or summary concept. In other words, to establish a procedure that does not require subjective criteria and that can be applied for both absolute and relativized indicators. This approach makes a dual contribution. First, a specific application, in this particular case for the case of the Spanish university system, will be created, to obtain a synthetic indicator for research activity. This will enable us to achieve an R&D and innovation ranking for Spanish universities. Second, the work makes a methodological contribution by using a new technique for synthesizing this type of indicator, namely Partial Least Squares (PLS).