STM publisher Elsevier has been selected by the national funding agency for science and technology in Portugal, Fundação para a Ciência e aTecnologia (FCT), to provide bibliometric analyses that will support its 2013/14 national review assessment of R&D units.
For the first time, FCT's review of R&D units in Portugal will include bibliometric analyses based on data from Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. The analyses, which cover research production, impact and collaboration for the 2008-2012 period, are provided by Elsevier's Analytical Services, part of the Elsevier Research Intelligence portfolio of tools.
By selecting Scopus as the data source for the assessment, FCT was able to cover the broadest range of researchers based in Portugal and their publication and citation counts from 2008 to 2012. The 2013/14 assessment exercise includes 324 R&D Units and more than 15,000 researchers.
For the custom bibliometric analyses FCT opted for a process whereby all 15,000 researchers were able to update their unique identifier profiles in ORCID, an open, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and output to these identifiers. The free Scopus-to-ORCID feedback wizard, created by Elsevier, enabled researchers in Portugal to populate and update their ORCID IDs, ensuring that the bibliometric analyses provided to FCT for the assessment of the R&D units are based on current, accurate data.
FCT funds and evaluates key R&D units across Portugal, as well as project grants, research infrastructures and individual researchers. Periodic (usually five-year) reviews of R&D units have been performed since 1996 with the goal of fostering and supporting international competitiveness of Portuguese research institutions. The final results of the 2013/2014 review will be known at the end of 2014.
