Evaluation of Swedish research in philosophy

Research is increasingly being evaluated using indirect methods that measure supply and demand – publication and citation. In light of this background, the Swedish Research Council’s Scientific Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences has tested an evaluation model which gets directly to the content of the research as it has been presented in scientific publications in a way that saves as much work as possible. Philosophy was chosen as a test field.

The evaluators recommended that publication in international media should be the norm for projects that the Swedish Research Council funds – philosophy research in Sweden presently holds its own well internationally, but does not always reach the right audience. They believed that the project grant is a grant form that suits the field of philosophy, called for it to be possible for applicants to classify their projects as interdisciplinary and thought that progress in this field can be best fostered via the bottom-up procedure, not by prioritising certain research focuses.