Effects of Research Evaluation on Balkan Post-Socialist Countries

Research evaluation (RE) strongly affects actors in higher education nowadays. Accordingly, this article unveils the effects of RE on Balkan post-socialist countries (BPSCs). Stakeholder theory, systematic literature review, K-means cluster analysis, a sample of 25 papers, expert evaluations and synthesis/analysis underpin it. Main results: 1. Data was found for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Slovenia. 2. The negative RE effects outnumbered the positive (30 vs. 22). They were also more frequently cited (65 vs. 53). 3. The most cited negative effects were unfair evaluation in some disciplines and the rise of authors per publication, while enhanced collaboration was the most cited positive. 4. Specifics of RE effects on BPSCs were elucidated. 5. BPSCs 3-cluster maps were created for the positive, negative, and all RE effects. The maps of negative and all RE effects were the same, covering BIH and Romania in cluster 1 (titled ‘least positive, mid negative’), Bulgaria and Serbia in cluster 2 (‘mid positive, least negative’), Slovenia and Croatia in cluster 3 (‘most positive, most negative’). The positive map differed only for Serbia, assigned to the ‘least positive’ cluster. The primary role of this article is as a landmark for BPSCs research evaluation effectiveness.