consider the institutional traits of different research organizations. The second is
simplicity. On the condition of meeting the basic evaluation requirements and
providing the needed information for research decisions, it’s necessary to reduce the
total number of indicators and highlight the main indicators, avoiding the redun-
dancy of indicators which would impede the implementation of evaluating uni-
versity research efficiency. The third is objectivity. In evaluating research
efficiency, we should choose those objective indicators rather than those subjective
ones, in order to guarantee the validity and reliability of the evaluation.
4.1.2.2 Research Activities in Universities
To scientifically construct a proper indicator system, we need to comb through the
related literature of university research efficiency, and explore the university
research production process thoroughly.
Although there are various types of research activities with different traits,
research activity in university, just like any other economic system, is also a pro-
duction process to produce some research outputs with some human, physical, and
financial inputs. This is also the case of research activities in 211Us. From a
quantitative perspective, major input factors of research activity include research
staff, research grants, research platforms, research projects and so on. In real
research activities, these input factors are not linked in a linear and direct way, but
associated with each other through complex interaction effects and causal effects.
The underlying associations can be depicted in Fig.4.1.
Fig. 4.1 The input–output process of university research production. This graph is adapted from
Fig.2.1 in Zhou (2010)
4.1 Indicator System Construction and Data Sources 115