Lots of assumptions here, not much evidence.
Citations, rankings, and selective funding - a short thread.
(Although applying the term salami slicing to German HE is mildly amusing.)
The Exzellenzinitiative, in part driven by the nonsense of rankings and 'world leadingness', has created hierarchies in a university system which essentially didn't have them. It has allowed some universities to grow and develop at the expense of others.
2/
Sidenote: Imagine a sector in which universities don't expend time and money chasing internal and external metrics, marketising themselves etc...the focus is on research and teaching, public service, and no fees.
(Not that German HE is a paradise for students or ECRs, mind.)
2/
A brief dig into the 'science' of citations shows that the 80:20 rule applies - 80% of papers cite 20% of a core body. Knowledge of scholarship is not perfect, and citations are not necessarily a sign of quality. The authors note this is a proxy for quality (as are rankings).
3/
Although a system which rewards quantity over quality (and rankings do this) are bound to lead to perversions in behaviour when funding, status, promotions etc are connected to this. Numbers are helpful but only with huge caveats.
4/End
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