Abstract
The academic literature provides a variety of empirical studies measuring the research efficiency of universities. The indicators used are mainly bibliometric values, which are intended to quantify the dissemination and impact of university research in the scientific community. Further objectives of a university's management related to research activities thatrefer to other stakeholders such as the interested public are typically not addressed in these studies. Against this background, the question arises whether altmetrics are suitable for quantifying such neglected objectives in order to be used as additional indicators in multidimensional efficiency analyses. Based on a framework built on fundamentals of decision theory, the paper conceptually addresses this question by discussing the potential of altmetrics to quantify research objectives. It turns out that only few altmetrics actually meet essential measurement requirements. The remaining altmetrics are then used in an empirical study to investigate their impact on research efficiency of three different research fields by means of Data Envelopment Analysis. It is shown that the inclusion of altmetrics, ceterisparibus, does not lead to any signifi cant changes in the ranking positions of the universities under consideration.
Published by GBI-Genios Deutsche Wirtschaftsdatenbank GmbH, München
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