Dealing with diversity in scientific outputs: implications for international research evaluation

Abstract

This paper examines the changing role and broadening goals of international agricultural research centers (IARCs), focusing on their evaluation mechanisms and priority setting processes. The case of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is used to identify the relative importance of outputs. It was found that, for IARCs, a wider range of credit items should be used in evaluating the institutional and individual performance. A decentralized process using nested institutional and project logframes would powerfully help to identify milestones for institutional and individual evaluation.