Does Quality Matter? Quality Assurance in Research for the Chilean Higher Education System
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1. Data Collection
- Scholarly output (ScholOutput): The number of publications (output) of a selected entity. It indicates its prolificacy.
- International collaboration, % (IntCollab%): extent to which its publications have international co-authorship.
- Field-weighted citation impact (FWCI): The ratio of citations received relative to the expected world average for the subject field, publication type, and publication year (also known as normalized citation impact). A FWCI of 1.00 indicates that the entity’s publications have been cited exactly as it would be expected on the global average for similar publications; the FWCI of the entity “World”, or the entire Scopus database, is 1.00. A FWCI > 1.0 indicates that the entity’s publications have been cited more than they are expected to be based on the global average for similar publications.
- Publications in Q1 journal quartile by CiteScore, % (PubQ1%): The number of high-quality publications of a selected entity that have been published in the Q1 journal quartile by CiteScore (%). It indicates the extent to which an entity’s publications are in the top 25%-journal percentile.
- Publications in Q1 to Q2 journal quartile by CiteScore, % (PubQ1Q2%): The number of quality publications of a selected entity that have been published in Q1 + Q2 journal quartiles by CiteScore (%). It indicates the extent to which an entity’s publications are in the top 50%-journal percentile.
- Output in top 10%-citation percentiles, field-weighted % (Top10%CitPerc%): The number of publications of a selected entity that are highly cited, having reached the top 10% of citations received (excellence). It indicates the extent to which an entity’s publications are present in the top 10%-citation percentile. For this metric, field weighting is used.
- Citations per publication (CitPub): The average number of citations received per publication. It indicates a measure of the impact of an entity’s publications.
- Views per publication (ViewsPub): The average number of views received per publication. It indicates a measure of usage of an entity’s publications.
2.2. Descriptive Analysis and Data Pre-Processing
2.3. Correlation of Feature Variables
2.4. Cluster Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive Analysis
3.2. Correlation of Feature Variables
3.3. Comparative Analysis of the Research Metrics and Years of Institutional Accreditation
3.4. Cluster Analysis
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
ANID | National Agency for Research and Development |
CNA | National Accreditation Commission |
CNED | National Council of Education |
FONDECYT | National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development |
FONDEF | Fund for Fostering Scientific and Technological Development |
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Institution | # Reference | Years of Accreditation |
---|---|---|
Universidad Alberto Hurtado | 1 | 4 |
Universidad Autónoma de Chile | 2 | |
Universidad de Atacama | 3 | |
Universidad de Magallanes | 4 | |
Universidad Andrés Bello | 5 | 5 |
Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción | 6 | |
Universidad Católica de Temuco | 7 | |
Universidad Católica del Maule | 8 | |
Universidad de Antofagasta | 9 | |
Universidad de La Serena | 10 | |
Universidad de Los Andes | 11 | |
Universidad de Los Lagos | 12 | |
Universidad de Tarapacá | 13 | |
Universidad de Valparaíso | 14 | |
Universidad del Bio-Bío | 15 | |
Universidad Diego Portales | 16 | |
Universidad Mayor | 17 | |
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso | 18 | 6 |
Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez | 19 | |
Universidad Austral de Chile | 20 | |
Universidad Católica del Norte | 21 | |
Universidad de La Frontera | 22 | |
Universidad de Talca | 23 | |
Universidad del Desarrollo | 24 | |
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María | 25 | |
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | 26 | 7 |
Universidad de Chile | 27 | |
Universidad de Concepción | 28 | |
Universidad de Santiago de Chile | 29 |
Variables | Mean | Median | Standard Deviation | KS Test (p-Value) | S-W Test (p-Value) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Years of accreditation | 5.41 | 5.00 | 0.91 | 0.037 | 0.012 |
Scholarly output | 3198.41 | 1807.0 | 3705.5 | 0.041 | 1.51 × 10−7 |
International collaboration (%) | 57.69 | 58.0 | 9.59 | 0.537 | 0.026 |
Field-weighted citation impact | 1.16 | 1.06 | 0.33 | 0.093 | 0.007 |
Publications in Q1 journal quartile by CiteScore (%) | 47.80 | 49.20 | 10.04 | 0.664 | 0.438 |
Publications in Q1 to Q2 journal quartile by CiteScore (%) | 69.75 | 72.70 | 8.82 | 0.214 | 0.006 |
Output in top 10% citation percentiles (field-weighted, %) | 10.42 | 9.60 | 2.94 | 0.486 | 0.021 |
Citations per publication | 9.85 | 9.10 | 3.87 | 0.552 | 0.169 |
Views per publication | 34.22 | 33.20 | 6.19 | 0.019 | 0.000 |
Variables | Description |
---|---|
Entity responsible for accreditation | National Accreditation Commission (CNA is the Spanish acronym), a national public agency, that evaluates, accredits, and promotes quality. |
Composition of the CNA Council | Four experienced university professors, four experienced lecturers from other higher education institutions, one professor representative of the business community, one faculty member representative of the public agency for scientific and technological development, and two student representatives. |
Areas of accreditation | Mandatory areas: undergraduate teaching and institutional management (1). Voluntary areas: graduate teaching, research, and community engagement (2). |
Type of accreditation | Voluntary and separate accreditation between the University as an institution and its educational programs (3). |
Stages and mechanisms of the accreditation process | Institutional self-evaluation, external evaluation (the visit of peer evaluators), and the opinion of the CNA. |
Levels of accreditation and deadlines for undergoing a new process | Excellence (6 to 7 years), advanced (4 to 5 years), basic (3 years), and not accredited. |
Consequences of accreditation | It influences tuition fees at universities, the access to public funding, and the increased offer of available university places and new programs and campuses. |
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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Troncoso, E.; López, D.A.; Ruby-Figueroa, R.; Koch, D.; Reich, R. Does Quality Matter? Quality Assurance in Research for the Chilean Higher Education System. Publications 2024, 12, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12010004
Troncoso E, López DA, Ruby-Figueroa R, Koch D, Reich R. Does Quality Matter? Quality Assurance in Research for the Chilean Higher Education System. Publications. 2024; 12(1):4. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12010004
Chicago/Turabian StyleTroncoso, Elizabeth, Daniel A. López, René Ruby-Figueroa, Dieter Koch, and Ricardo Reich. 2024. "Does Quality Matter? Quality Assurance in Research for the Chilean Higher Education System" Publications 12, no. 1: 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12010004