Quantitative and qualitative methods and measures in the evaluation of research

This paper proposes that the choice of quantitative versus qualitative measures in research evaluation is a false one, especially for evaluators isolated from the veal world, This choice, sometimes substantially client-driven, should be tempered by professional judgment. It is sometimes easier to develop quantitative 'indicators' of performance than to work out what the program has to accomplish. As a result legislators and others increasingly ask public agencies for quantitative measures of research performance, and in so doing generate all kinds of mischief. Unfortunately, the fallacy of misplaced concreteness in research evaluation is still alive if not necessarily well. The paper concludes with an admonition to research evaluators to educate clients and supporters of evaluations about the separate dimensions of measurement, the orthogonality of vigor and type of measure: numbers vs. words, symbols or pictures.