Napoléon et l’évaluation bibliométrique de la recherche. Considérations sur la réforme de l’université et sur l’action de l’agence national d’évaluation en Italie

The academic reforms in Italy have introduced innovations in a Napoleonic administrative apparatus unfit to receive them, thus generating a completely unbalanced institutional system. The system’s center of gravity has moved from the administration by the ministry to the National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research (ANVUR), assigning directly to the elite group chosen by the government enormous power on research and the universities, without counter-weight. The poor design of the governance of the ANVUR has resulted in the realization of technically inadequate evaluations. Criticism addressed to the evaluation activities and to the bibliometric methods used have revived the debate on research policy in Italy, with the emergence of a scientific counter-public.