[Luojia Lecture] Norwegian Scholar Gunnar Sivertsen Talks about Scientific Evaluation in the Field of Humanities and Social Sciences

On October 30th, Gunnar Sivertsen, Professor of the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo, Norway and Director of the Center for Scientific Metrology and Evaluation, attended the 268^thLuojia Lecture and gave a report entitled “Scientific Evaluation Issues in Humanities and Social Sciences”.

Scientific evaluation must first clarify the object of evaluation. A major feature of humanities and social science research is the diversification of the forms of research results.

Sivertsen talked about the publication modes of academic achievements in the field of humanities and social sciences, expounding the differences between academic achievements in the field of humanities and social sciences and that of natural sciences in terms of publication type and language, and pointed out that this difference is not only a result of different paradigm, but also influenced by different scientific and technological evaluations and policy orientations.

A clear scientific evaluation object needs to be supported by a comprehensive and objective data source, which is an important support for scientific evaluation. However, due to the publication characteristics of humanities and social sciences, the coverage of academic achievements in international mainstream databases is not comprehensive, and it is difficult to fully reflect the research situation of humanities and social sciences in scientific evaluation.

Sivertsen introduced the practical achievements of Norway and other countries in building national information platforms for scientific research results. These results have penetrated into education, culture, and policy among other aspects. To this end, scientific evaluation must deal with the relationship between internationalization and localization according to the discipline paradigm, research purposes and audience.

Sivertsen also pointed out according to the policy of social science development in China, and combined with international experience, it is important to respect the diversity of humanities and social sciences in terms of the types and effects of the results, comprehensively consider the scientific evaluation of humanities and social sciences, and he provided many valuable suggestions for the humanities and social sciences development in China.

Sivertsen has served as a research and evaluation consultant for the European Union and many European governments in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, etc., and has guided and helped many European governments to establish and improve national research information and evaluation systems. He has helped to guide many European countries to incorporate humanities and social science evaluation into the national scientific research evaluation system.