Quality and quantity indices in science: use of visualization tools

Recent articles in EMBO reports have addressed the issues of decreasing research funding (Wolinsky, 2009) and the importance of research evaluation (Bornmann & Daniel, 2009). Both topics are directly connected to one other. In the light of stagnant or even decreasing private and public funding for research, precise rules for funding policies have become indispensable in order to identify good research projects and proposals. The use of benchmarking systems to assess the quality of research is therefore an important feature of implementing an efficient funding policy. Although individual scientometric and bibliometric methods can be used to analyse the research activities of faculties or single scientists, these techniques often do not provide a larger picture of scientific quality and quantity in relation to funding. Without the use of scientometric methods and other techniques to analyse whether existing funding schemes are successful or not, there will be a growing disrespect for funding policies among scientists. To address this, we present an example of how to visualize research quantity and quality across the European Union (EU). Reviews of European research funding and other comments make it clear that the EU needs to improve its research strategy (Fricker, 2007; Kingdon, 2006; Mayor, 2007; Watts, 2008). In this respect, a recent news report stated that “European science is not as intense as hoped” (Clery, 2009).