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Do social sciences and humanities behave like life and hard sciences?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Bonaccorsi

    (University of Pisa
    FBK-IRVAPP, Istituto per la Ricerca Valutativa sulle Politiche Pubbliche)

  • Cinzia Daraio

    (University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’)

  • Stefano Fantoni

    (Fondazione Internazionale Trieste)

  • Viola Folli

    (Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT))

  • Marco Leonetti

    (Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)
    University of Salento)

  • Giancarlo Ruocco

    (Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)
    University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’)

Abstract

The quantitative evaluation of Social Science and Humanities (SSH) and the investigation of the existing similarities between SSH and Life and Hard Sciences (LHS) represent the forefront of scientometrics research. We analyse the scientific production of the universe of Italian academic scholars , over a 10-year period across 2002–2012, from a national database built by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes. We demonstrate that all Italian scholars of SSH and LHS are equals, as far as their publishing habits. They share the same general law, which is a lognormal. At the same time, however, they are different, because we measured their scientific production with different indicators required by the Italian law; we eliminated the “silent” scholars and obtained different scaling values—proxy of their productivity rates. Our findings may be useful to further develop indirect quali–quantitative comparative analysis across heterogeneous disciplines and, more broadly, to investigate on the generative mechanisms behind the observed empirical regularities.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio & Stefano Fantoni & Viola Folli & Marco Leonetti & Giancarlo Ruocco, 2017. "Do social sciences and humanities behave like life and hard sciences?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 607-653, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:112:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-017-2384-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2384-0
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