Quality of research measured by citation method and by peer review — A comparison

A comparison has been performed between two well known methods of evaluating the quality of research as applied to seven areas of research in Sweden. One of these methods is that of peer review performed by especially appointed international experts, the other method is citation analysis. The comparison indicates a very considerable difference in cost between the two methods, the citation method being about 200 times less costly in terms of money as well as time. The citation method measures only one parameter of the quality of research, “international visibility,” and has a rank correlation coefficient about 0.6 compared to peer review.