Best practice manual for Web data use in indicator research
Objectives
- Analyses of feasibility, validity and reliability of STI Web indicators
- Composition of a Best practice manual
Description of work/methodology
The Best Practice Manual will:
- Review the techniques currently used to measure the structure and nature of the Web (including available bibliographies about methods for measuring the Web)
- Explore new techniques to extract quantitative data from the Web. In the course of the project new techniques will be developed to analyse hypertext links between pages and traffic on the net, for instance.
- Explain how these techniques can be used to produce robust and reliable web-based indicators of the structure and activities of the science, technology and innovation community.
- Build new indicators to describe the main processes of S&T communication and the structure of the academic and R&D Web.
- Explain the advantages and shortcomings of the programs available for the mapping and description of the web sites.
- Specific focus will be directed on the possibilities to extract gender information from web page analysis.
In particular, the Manual will entail the following chapters:
- State of the art in field of web indicators
- Software evaluation, including programs that extract data automatically from the web
- Search engines (virtues and shortcomings as tools for sampling the web)
- Application of theory of citation to describe hypertext nature of the web
- Overview about indicators (table describing the indicators, their definitions, methods of calculation and main applications)
- Glossary of terms, with standardised definitions and descriptions about procedures to obtain data.
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