Una reflexión crítica sobre la cultura de rankings e indicadores

Sociologically speaking, the end of the twentieth century saw the transition from post-industrial capitalism to the information society (Castells, 1996). In this change, in the middle of the Cold War, scientometry was born -second order science or, also, quantitative measurement of science, prima facie-, with the Frascati Manual (2012) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -ocde- 1963, with later revisions and updates). The Frascati Manual was followed by the Oslo Manual (1993) and the Canberra Manual (1997). For Ibero-America and Latin America, the Lisbon Manual, the Santiago Manual and the Bogotá Manual were later created. Informational capitalism and the knowledge society both respond to the fact that information in general and knowledge have grown hyperbolically, literally. There have never been so many academics, scientists, engineers and researchers as there are today. To the growth and expansion of information and knowledge, scientometrics responds with quantitative measurements, simply because for the first time it is possible, desirable and necessary to measure science and how it is done, as well as all its arsenal and expressions. Well, in the transition to informational capitalism, various scales emerge, specifically centered on the quantity and quality of universities, then also of programs, schools and faculties, and more recently of the professors and researchers themselves.