Quality Measurement beyond Bibliometry

Research Administration has always been an important part of research organization, as it has the authority to boost research activities in selected fields. One of the challenges is, to identify those directions of research and those spontaneously popping up findings as early as possible, which will become of high importance for economy and research in the nearer or more distant future. Without good and well tested technical aids, this task may be impossible to meet. For many years, bibliometry was the method of first choice, to identify persons and groups of high impact (=quality?) research. The problem with using bibliometry is, that publishing is a slow process, resulting in measuring the quality and impact of those activities years back. It also results in support for those groups and individuals, who already had been supported for a long time, moving those researchers out of focus, who may come up with new, innovative findings. This paper gives an overview of research activities for measuring research quality beyond the bibliometric paradigm, but making use of big data, research data and computer based learning in Germany. It also gives some short but generally understandable introduction into the used technologies to enable the audience to discuss on the shown methodologies and techniques.