Roger Coronini

Decoding the literature on genetic variation

A survey of the scientific and patent literature on single-nucleotide variants reveals the dominance of research centers in the United States and the prolific patenting of SNP technology by a select group of biotechnology companies.

From individual scientific visibility to collective competencies: The example of an academic department in the social sciences

The article discusses the role of university departments in the social sciences. It studies how to describe the three missions of university departments: education, research and consultancy services for public and private organisations. It also proposes some tools to evaluate to what extent these missions are connected. Until now, evaluation in this domain has focused primarily on research activities and far too few indicators have been developed for the other two missions. Moreover, evaluation is often performed on an individual basis, so that the synergy generated by work collectives is rarely evaluated.The purpose of this article is to propose a method for identifying and describing the competencies of a social science research and teaching department. This method can be used to study the articulation between the departments different activities—research, expertise and teaching. Maps of activity are generated, which can serve as a basis for strategic planning of future trends.The approach is based on an analysis of “traces” (articles, contracts, research reports, postgraduate training modules) of the activity of the different components of the Social Science Department, using lexicographic analysis tools. With keywords, titles, summaries and synopses of lectures, it is possible to draw up “maps” representing the departments main competencies.