The project objective is to investigate the effects of research evaluation implemented by the government on scientific work and knowledge production, taking academics working in Italian universities as a case.

Moreover, the project aims at contributing to the design of a methodological approach for measuring the effects of evaluation at individual level, which can be used in designing, implementing, and managing such evaluation processes.

Research questions are:

1) what changes external research evaluation can produce on research practices and individuals’ strategies?

2) what are the epistemological and methodological underpinnings of research evaluation and their implications for assessment at individual level?

Evaluation has diverse areas of potential effects that can be summarized in three main groups:

a) at governance level, effects on the hierarchical relationships between actors, with the possibility to face a verticalization of the power distribution;

b) at the scientific community level, effects on the formation of new élites and the reconfiguration of the academic work;

c) at institutional level, effects on the university management and performance through a rationalization in the use of the available resources.

Despite efforts have been developed to deepen the effects of evaluation on hierarchies, governance and management at institutional level, changes produced by evaluation on the academic work are still poorly explored.

This project wants to contribute to fill this gap.