{"id":1324,"date":"2026-01-23T15:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/?page_id=1324"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:32:25","slug":"birch-research-group","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/birch-research-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Birch Research Group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Between Economy and Democracy: Reorganizing Research Evaluation through Metadata in the Digital Era<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the reorientation of research evaluation through metadata in the digital age, in Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Advancing digitalization is leading to a massive increase in metadata about research, on who produced which research, where, with what money and with what impact. Based on these metadata, and increasingly also with the help of generative AI, large companies have entered the steadily growing business of \u2018research analytics\u2019, which allows research performance to be tracked and evaluated at a completely new scale. Supporters of the open science movement criticize this development as the privatization of public research information and warn that this commercialization hinders open and equal access to knowledge about research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there have been few, if any systematic and comparative studies to date on the differences between commercial and open data analytics products or providers, and especially on their impact on the practices of research evaluation and research itself. This project aims to fill this gap by providing a systematic comparison between commercial and open data products and providers, and their effects on research evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, the project examines competition between commercial and open data providers, comparing their products and unpacking their epistemic framing of research quality and how they operationalize these framings in the products they develop. Second, the project investigates how university and other research organization administrators in Canada, France, Germany, and the UK integrate commercial and open data analytics into their own institutional and sectoral evaluation systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In so doing, the project provides a new comparative perspective into the effects of commercial versus open data analytics on local research evaluation practices and research cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Funded by<\/strong>: Work in Canada for this project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), as part of the eighth round of the Open Research Area for the Social Sciences. The broader project is also supported by coordinated support from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Cooperation with<\/strong>: Anne K. Kr\u00fcger and Gabriel Bartl (Weizenbaum Institute<\/a>), Andrea Mennicken (PI) and Josie R. West (King\u2019s College London), Martin Lodge (London School of Economics and Political Science), Stephan Stahlschmidt and Matteo Ottaviani (German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Studies), and Didier Torny and Aube Richebourg (Mines Paris-PSL)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Duration:<\/strong> 2025 to 2028<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Kean<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kean Birch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professor
Department of Technology and Society,
Faculty of Science;
Ontario Research Chair in Science Policy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

kean@yorku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Quintin Kreth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Science, Technology and Society,
Faculty of Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>quintink@yorku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Constantin\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Katrina Matheson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PhD Student
Department of Science, Technology and Society,
Faculty of Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a>kmath80@yorku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between Economy and Democracy: Reorganizing Research Evaluation through Metadata in the Digital Era Exploring the reorientation of research evaluation through metadata in the digital age, in Canada and beyond. Background Advancing digitalization is leading to a massive increase in metadata about research, on who produced which research, where, with what money and with what impact. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2474,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1324","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"kseo","author_link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/author\/kseo\/"},"comment_info":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1324\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/science\/sts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}