jscientometres-7-3-189 Journal of Scientometric Res. 2018; 7(3):189-193

http://www.jscires.org

Research Article

Journal of Scientometric Research, Vol 7, Issue 3, Sep-Dec 2018 189

The Paradox of Enrichment in Chile’s Ecological  Science Funding

Jaime R. Rau1, Fabián M. Jaksic2

1Laboratorio de Ecología (LABECOL), Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Biodiversidad, Universidad de Los Lagos, P.O.B. 933, Osorno, CHILE.

2Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, P.O.B. 114-D, Santiago, CHILE.

Bajar aquí

ABSTRACT

Aim/Background: Considering its population, Chile is one of the leading countries in scientific research in Latin America. Historically, ecology and environmental sciences have shown productivity and scientific excellence. Proof of this is the award of public funding to the Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity (CASEB), operational since 2002. Criteria for the allocation of public funds to this Center gave preference to the most productive environmental research group in the country. Thus, scientometric productivity of CASEB researchers may be analyzed critically, before 2002, during its initial (2002-2006) and its final (2007-2011) phases of operation. Results and Conclusion: Before researchers joined CASEB (the 5-year window 1996-2000), their collective median h-index (M) was 6. During the first five years (2002-2006) it dropped to M = 5, while in its final phase (2007-2011) it jumped to M = 12. Published articles increased at an annual percentage growth of 5.7% during its 10 yr operation, while citations did at 6.8%. The direct public investment in CASEB resulted in an increase in the productivity and academic excellence indicators of its 27 researchers. However, significant scientometric changes could only be verified at the end of the decadal funding period. We call this phenomenon “the paradox of enrichment.”

Keywords: CASEB, Chile, Scientometrics, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Science Policy.

Copyright

© The Author(s). 2018 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.