PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS Performance Management at Universities The Danish Bibliometric Research Indicator at Work Poul Erik Mouritzen Niels Opstrup Public Sector Organizations Series Editors B. Guy Peters Department of Political Science Pittsburgh University Pittsburgh, PA, USA Geert Bouckaert Public Management Institute Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven, Vlaams Brabant, Belgium Organizations are the building blocks of governments. The role of organizations, formal and informal, is most readily apparent in public bureaucracy, but all the institutions of the public sector are comprised of organizations, or have some organizational characteristics that affect their performance. Therefore, if scholars want to understand how governments work, a very good place to start is at the level of organizations involved in delivering services. Likewise, if practitioners want to understand how to be effective in the public sector, they would be well-advised to con- sider examining the role of organizations and how to make organizations more effective. This series publishes research-based books concerned with organizations in the public sector and covers such issues as: the autonomy of public sector organizations; networks and network analysis; bureau- cratic politics; organizational change and leadership; and methodology for studying organizations. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14525 Poul Erik Mouritzen · Niels Opstrup Performance Management at Universities The Danish Bibliometric Research Indicator at Work Poul Erik Mouritzen Niels Opstrup Department of Political Science Department of Political Science Aarhus University and Public Management Aarhus, Denmark University of Southern Denmark Odense, Denmark Public Sector Organizations ISBN 978-3-030-21324-4 ISBN 978-3-030-21325-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21325-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to Sebastian, Bertram, David, Miriam and Rebecca. P reface This book is about performance management at universities, specifically the introduction of a performance-based research funding system in Denmark, the so-called Bibliometric Research Indicator (BRI). Essentially, the BRI counts the number of publications from each university on a yearly basis, which then influences the yearly appropriation in the national budget for each individual university. We focus on the many dilemmas that arise when scholars are subjected to such a system and rewarded for their publication ‘performance.’ Do they change their behaviour in order to maximize BRI points? And if so, how does that happen? Do they ‘game the system’ or ‘slice’ their research publications into the smallest publish- able units? Do they put more emphasis on short-term and ‘safe’ research at the cost of long-term and more ‘risky’ projects? University leaders also face new challenges with a system like the BRI: How and to what extent should they implement the system in order to affect faculty behaviour? The first main results from the project were published in a Danish book, En fremmed kommer til byen. Ti år med den bibliometriske forsk- ningsindikator (A Stranger Comes to Town: Ten Years with the BRI) (Mouritzen et al. 2018). It was obviously targeted at a Danish audi- ence that was assumed to be particularly interested in the specific Danish details, for instance how the different universities performed and how the system was conceived and implemented. The present book is tar- geted at an international audience and is quite different from its Danish predecessor. Some of the chapters are new (4, 6, 7 and 8), while some of the chapters in the Danish book (3, 4, 6 and 7) have been shortened vii viii PREfACE considerably and now form part of Chapter 5. Almost all other chapters have been rewritten, and new analyses have been added. Some sections of the book are translated directly, such as the empirical analyses of mis- representation (or ‘gaming’) in Chapter 5. The book is the product of almost nine years of research. The project started in 2010, and the last interviews were conducted in 2017 while some of the hard data were collected in late 2018. During that period, we were rather hesitant to publish results since too much public debate could influence our main sources, namely the many scholars and univer- sity leaders who willingly set aside time to complete our questionnaires and participate in interviews. In the course of this long project, many people were involved as research assistants. We wish to thank all of them for their invaluable work throughout. Professors Peter Munk Christiansen and Jørgen Søndergaard gave valuable comments on the first book. Our colleague Professor Jesper Schneider has been an invaluable advisor throughout the project and kindly supplied us with the data and analyses presented in Chapter 13. A special thanks should be given to our co-author on the Danish book, Pernille Bak Pedersen, who contributed tremendously to that manuscript. We are thankful to the members of our advisory board, Professors Margit Osterloh, Barry Bozeman, Ivar Bleiklie, Bruno S. frey and Paul Wouters. Since its establishment, we have held four meetings with the board in addition to several one-to-one meetings. We also want to give a special thanks to academic editor Kate Thulin, who did a painstaking and wonderful job copy editing the manuscript. finally, we thank the two foundations which made the research pos- sible. A large grant from The Velux foundation financed most of the expenses of the project while The Carlsberg foundation supported the project with a two-year postdoctoral fellowship. Aarhus, Denmark Poul Erik Mouritzen Odense, Denmark Niels Opstrup february 2019 reference Mouritzen, Poul Erik, Niels Opstrup, and Pernille Bak Pedersen. 2018. En fremmed kommer til byen. Ti år med den bibliometriske forskningsindikator. Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag. c ontents Part I Introduction 1 Performance Management Strikes Danish Universities 3 2 Design of the Study 23 3 Trickling Down to the Individual 37 Part II Motivational and Behavioral Effects 4 Incentive Systems Surrounding the Modern Scholar 59 5 Gaming the System 81 6 Strategic Decisions About Research and Publications 99 7 For Love or Money? 127 8 From a ‘Taste for Science’ to a ‘Taste for Publications’? 141 ix x CONTENTS 9 Under Pressure? 165 10 Effort Substitution? 181 Part III Output and Outcomes 11 How Great Expectations on Bredgade Were Dashed at Frue Plads 201 12 Publication Profiles 215 13 The International Impact of Danish Research 229 Part IV Conclusions 14 Havoc or Heaven? 249 15 Lessons from the Study 269 Literature 283