Research On The Scientific Research Evaluation System Of Local Application-Oriented Undergraduate Institutions From The Perspective Of Stakeholders

As an important basis for scientific research evaluation,the scientific research evaluation system(SRES)has a bearing not only on their accomplishment of such missions as talent cultivation,social service,cultural inheritance and innovation,and international communication and cooperation,but also on their high-quality development.In recent years,although SRES of higher institutions has become increasingly standardized thanks to rapid development of scientific research in China,there are still some obvious problems with the number,practicability,conversion rate,and originality of research achievements in addition to frequent scientific misconducts.Such problems are partly attributed to defects with existing SRES of higher institutions in China.Being an integral part of the higher education system,local application-oriented undergraduate institutions(local institutions)are also faced with such a challenge during research quality improvement.In fact,scientific research evaluation involves many stakeholders,including internal and external ones.Therefore,local institutions have to meet the demands of,provide communication channels for,and handle conflict of interest with stakeholders in scientific research evaluation.Stakeholder Theory is adopted as the theoretical framework to explain conflicts among SRES stakeholders and underlying causes,and to help local institutions cope with related challenges.SRES stakeholders refer to organizations or individuals that invest in scientific research evaluation of local institutions,bear corresponding risks,and thus have influence on or are subject to the influence of such evaluation.Accordingly,SRES stakeholders of local institutions mainly include education authorities,leaders in charge of scientific research evaluation at the institution/department level,employees handling evaluation work at the institution/department level,peer review experts,teachers,students,target groups,academic publishing companies,and the industry.Empirical research reveals that each category of stakeholders varies in their understanding of other categories’ role.Among the six categories of stakeholders investigated,teachers,peer review experts,and employees handling evaluation work at the department level believe that peer review experts are definitive stakeholders,leaders in charge of and employees handling scientific research evaluation at the institution level believe that peer review experts and leaders in charge of scientific research evaluation at the institution level are definitive stakeholders,while leaders in charge of scientific research evaluation at the department level believe that leaders in charge of scientific research evaluation at the institution level are definitive stakeholders.Such a finding points out the need to have SRES of local institutions managed by multiple parities,and common defects of existing SRESs,such as dominant role of administration at the institution level and minor role of departments,imbalanced power structure among stakeholders,and the urgency to empower scientific research evaluation.Such defects provide a basis for studying SRES of local institutions under the guidance of Stakeholder Theory.According to the results of a survey on satisfaction with SRES of local institutions,all stakeholders are only moderately satisfied with SRES or below regardless of their category.An analysis of SRES content,design,formulation and evaluation process reveals that existing SRES features administration dominance,which reflects imbalanced and unequal power structure among stakeholders and hinders the dialogue between SRES and stakeholders,in particular teachers.It can be concluded that there are many problems with existing SRES and its operation mechanism of local institutions,especially failure to meet the demands of and provide communication channels for stakeholders.The current study points out that the gap between stakeholder expectation and the reality arises from imbalanced power structure,lack of information transparency among stakeholders,and failure to provide support to and ensure power balance among stakeholders.SRES of local institutions shall replace administration-dominant governance with joint governance by stakeholders based on successful experience of higher institutions in America and the practical need for SRES improvement.Joint governance provides an appropriate channel for stakeholders to express and agree on their demands,to balance their demands and power structure during SRES design,to establish and improve the mechanisms for voicing demands,exercising power,supervising power,and supporting teacher access and training that encourage full participation in scientific research evaluation,to promote production and application of high-quality scientific research achievements,and to achieve the goal of improving scientific research capacity of both teachers and higher institutions.