Assessment of expertise overlap between an expert panel and research groups

Paper in proceeding, 2014

Discipline-specific research evaluation exercises are typically carried out by committees of peers, expert panels. Currently, there are no available methods that can measure overlap in expertise between a panel and the units of assessment. This research in progress paper explores a bibliometric approach to determining the overlap of expertise, using the 2010 research evaluation of nine physics research groups of the University of Antwerp as a test case. Overlay maps were applied to visualize to what extent the groups and panel members publish in different Web of Science subject categories. There seems to be a moderate disparity between the panel’s and the groups’ expertise. The panel was not as diverse as the groups that needed to be assessed. Future research will focus on journal level overlay maps, similarity testing, and a comparison with other disciplines.