Postdoctoral Position in Social Studies of Science with a focus on Research Evaluation

The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. The declaration was developed in 2012 during the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in San Francisco. It has become a worldwide initiative to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment covering all scholarly disciplines and all key stakeholders including funders, publishers, professional societies, institutions, and researchers.

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) studies scientific research and its connections to technology, innovation, and society. As a leading research, consulting, and training center, CWTS is dedicated to increasing our understanding of scientific quality, societal impact, and other related concepts. CWTS studies the conditions and consequences of research evaluation for the generation of new knowledge, and the role of research in innovation processes. Special attention is paid to the value of bibliometric and scientometric tools to support the evaluation and management of scientific research. On the basis of its research, CWTS wishes to contribute to the debates about the role of science in society. Studies at CWTS range across the broad field of science, technology and innovation studies.

The Science and Evaluation Studies (SES) research group analyses the politics and practices of research evaluation in connection with contemporary forms of governance of research and scholarship. We use the concept of "governance" because it allows us to take into account the changing relationships between knowledge production processes and formal and informal steering efforts at multiple levels in the science system:

• (inter)national level - e.g. EU funding schemes, responsible metrics initiatives;
• organisational level - e.g. institutional evaluation practices;
• shop-floor level - e.g. the practical handling and possible epistemic implications of indicators in different fields.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences conducts high-quality research and offers a broad and disciplinary educational programme, focused on increasing our understanding of current developments in society. The faculty consists of five institutes: Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Developmental Sociology, Education and Child Studies, Political Science and Psychology. The faculty has approximately 7,000 students and 850 staff members. For more information , see the website.

Diversity and inclusion are cherished as core values at Leiden University. Also at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences we strive to create a diverse and inclusive learning and working environment, in which everyone – no matter who they are or what they do – can feel at home and develop their talents.