http://www.ad-astra.ro/posts/view_post.php?post_id=1625&lang=en

"In Extremis" Blog Post : Petition call to rectors of Romanian universities

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FYI - Google translate version:

This petition call is open to any Romanian citizen (signatures are collected at www.petitieonline.ro/petitie-p09977063.html), and is aimed at Romanian universities rectors. Ladies and Gentlemen Rectors please make public as quickly as possible your updated science resumes to include among others the total number of publications in mainstream journals (indexed by ISI-Thomson database), number of citations, number of autocitations, and Hirsch index (for the latter see the definition, eg, en.wikipedia.org / wiki / H-index) and a general analysis of your scientific accomplishments and leadership. Such transparency can become a model of scientific performance analysis for the entire academic community in Romania, which you otherwise shepherd. A good resume example is at homepage.mac.com / Hampl / VH_CV.pdf for the rector of Charles University in Prague, Dr. Vaclav Hampl. If we are permitted we would recommend the following criteria for rectors of the humanities to
www.ad-astra.ro/posts/view_post.php?post_id=1416&lang=en.

A rector of a university must, first of all, "know his job" like a hospital director or the farmer growing wheat or raising animals. In academia, "to know your job" means to have or have had scientific productivity and professional prestige. Starting from this premise, we conducted an analysis of scientific productivity for rectors of universities in Romania, following both the number and impact of published scientific articles expressed in these publications and citations.

For this analysis we used publications in ISI-Thomson database, for those rectors who are part of the National Council of Rectors (or RCN, according to the list published at consiliulrectorilor.ro) and from disciplines that lend themselves to scientometric analysis . Some preliminary observations: the list published by the NCR includes a deceased person (thus the list has not been updated since the end of 2008), NCR members profiles do not contain any presentation of their work whatsoever, and the last item under "News" dates from April 2010. We did not analyze (for reasons stated above) rectors from humanities, arts, or law, military and religious institutions, where such an analysis must use specific criteria.

Of the 48 rectors considered, only 29 have published more than five (5) scientific papers (see Table 1). If we assume that, regardless of specialty, an active scientist should publish, on average, at least one article per year, it comes that 60% of universities in Romania are run by people with a scientific activity that corresponds to a rather novice level. If we go further and take into account quality and service (reflected in the number of citations) of authors analyze the scientific production, the situation becomes dramatic. Only 8 of the 48 rectors have gathered more than five citations in their entire career - including, let us remember, 20 years of freedom and access to scientific information, plus the considerable advances in information technology that facilitates publishing in journals with vision. Of these eight rectors, only three have gathered more than the total citations to their work, meaning that results from each paper has been useful to at least one other colleague working in the same branch of science.

We have not included in the above report results for Dr. engineer prof. Ecaterina Andronescu NRC chairman. Instead, we analyzed the rectors of leading universities from former communist countries to facilitate comparisons between countries with a similar recent history. A brief analysis of her scientific work shows that Dr. Andronescu fully deserves the presidency of NCR from this point of view - she published a good number of papers (62 indexed by ISI) with average utility for the discipline in which they apply (85 citations, H- index = 5). In a detail analysis, however, we note that 30 of these citations are autocitations and many others have appeared in modest journals, whether Romanian or international. Compared to her colleagues in other post-communist countries, many of them internationally recognized personalities, Ms. Andronescu makes for a modest figure (see Table 2).

There may be limitations imposed by the international database, so it is quite possible that our analysis is incomplete and it may do unjustice to some or all rectors in Romania. Therefore, we invite them to make public their resumes with scientometric elements calculated. This request is motivated not only by the function exerted by those persons, but also the important role NCR will have in implementing reforms under the new Education Law. Laggard positions for the Romanian educational system in recent years reinforce our belief that a rector can not succeed in his/her mission with manager skills only, if he or she was not an academic success first. If there are examples to the contrary in Romania today we would like to know about!

"In extremis" (L. Giosan)

Posted by Liviu Giosan

07/02/11