From applicateness to potential applicability: An informetric approach based on researchers’ scientific productions

Abstract

This work discusses a methodology for measuring the applied orientation, which we call “applicateness”, of the results published by a researcher in the scientific and technological literature, and applies this methodology to evaluate the potential applicability of a research project submitted for funding to a grant agency. Our methodology develops a content analysis approach operated with the help of text mining tools coming from the natural language processing (NLP) and clustering techniques. Its deployment aims at easing the workload of the final stage of expertise, which nevertheless remains necessary. We illustrate our approach by processing a real case coming from the grant applications of the main European funding agency that has established a selection process based on the identification of scientific excellence in frontier research as the sole evaluation criterion for funding decisions.