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8.9 PAYING ATTENTION TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
ARTS & HUMANITIES

In this section we pay special attention to the social sciences and the
arts & humanities. We discuss the Norwegian and Flemish models as
examples; similar databases exist in many other (European) countries as
well (S¯ ıle et al., 2017).

8.9.1 The Norwegian Model

The driving force behind the Norwegian model is Sivertsen (2008). The
following description of the model is based on Schneider (2009) and
Sivertsen (2010).
The Norwegian model started as an assignment from the Norwegian
Ministry of Education. Its aim is to assign a share of basic funding among
6 universities and 40 other institutes of higher education. It was applied
for the first time in 2006. In this way, 2% of the total science budget was
relocated.
As the model is based on publications, a database has been developed
containing all acceptable (see further) Norwegian publications. Data in
this database are complete, correct and reliable. Counting is fractionalized
according to institutes and weighted according to three levels.
According to its inventor the most innovative part of the model is the
construction of a documentation system, CRIStin (Current Research
Information System in Norway), to support the bibliometric indicator
used in the model. All Norwegian publications are registered, validated
and standardized. The system is public and transparent. It is enhanced
with a structured set of metadata. A first condition to be acceptable is that
an article is published in a journal with an ISSN and a book has an ISBN.
Moreover, journals must be peer-reviewed and if two thirds or more of
the authors of a journal belong to the same institute such journals are not
accepted. In other words, journals that are “too local” are excluded. The
Norwegian model combines production (quantity) and quality. Yet, no
citations are used. Instead, field experts determine to which quality level a
publication channel—a journal or publisher—belongs. Three types of
publication channels are distinguished:
Level 0: Channels not accepted as being of scientific value.
Level 1: Channels accepted as scientific publication channels.
Level 2: Publication channels with extra-large scientific prestige.