Quality versus quantity: assessing individual research performance.

Evaluating individual research performance is a complex task that ideally examines productivity, scientific impact, and research quality--a task that metrics alone have been unable to achieve. In January 2011, the French Academy of Sciences published a report on current bibliometric (citation metric) methods for evaluating individual researchers, as well as recommendations for the integration of quality assessment. Here, I draw on key issues raised by this report and comment on the suggestions for improving existing research evaluation practices.