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The purpose of this paper is to explain and demonstrate the importance and usefulness of mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches in participatory residential sustainability policy and practice.

The approach uses a theoretical model, developed through engagements with cultural and political sociology, to inform participatory engagement in selecting “indicators” of urban residential sustainability.

If they are to influence policy and practice effectively, quantitative indicators of sustainability need to be subjected to dialogical negotiation and deliberation aimed at establishing qualitative assessment of the problem.

Recognizing as foundational the need to negotiate the terms on which the task of achieving sustainability is implemented, the approach links “natural” with “social” scientific endeavour in a policy‐oriented and practical approach to binding together quantitative with qualitative “indicators” of sustainability.

Given the magnitude of the literature, a researcher must be selective of research papers and publications in general. In other words, only papers that meet strict standards of academic integrity and adhere to reliable and credible sources should be referenced. The purpose of this paper is to approach this issue from the prism of scientometrics according to the following research questions: Is it necessary to judge the quality of scientific production? How do we evaluate scientific production? What are the tools to be used in evaluation?

This paper presents a comparative study of scientometric evaluation practices and tools. A systematic literature review is conducted based on articles published in the field of scientometrics between 1951 and 2022. To analyze data, the authors performed three different aspects of analysis: usage analysis based on classification and comparison between the different scientific evaluation practices, type and level analysis based on classifying different scientometric indicators according to their types and application levels and similarity analysis based on studying the correlation between different quantitative metrics to identify similarity between them.

This comparative study leads to classify different scientific evaluation practices into externalist and internalist approaches. The authors categorized the different quantitative metrics according to their types (impact, production and composite indicators), their levels of application (micro, meso and macro) and their use (internalist and externalist). Moreover, the similarity analysis has revealed a high correlation between several scientometric indicators such as author h-index, author publications, citations and journal citations.

The interest in this study lies deeply in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of research groups and guides their actions. This evaluation contributes to the advancement of scientific research and to the motivation of researchers. Moreover, this paper can be applied as a complete in-depth guide to help new researchers select appropriate measurements to evaluate scientific production. The selection of evaluation measures is made according to their types, usage and levels of application. Furthermore, our analysis shows the similarity between the different indicators which can limit the overuse of similar measures.

The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. “educational indicators”. The paper aims to analyse the structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question “What can educational indicators achieve?”

Starting with a general consideration of the term “indicator” the findings are applied to the educational area and the development of educational indicators is analysed critically.

Indicators allow for the illustration of outcomes and of system processes. Beginning in the 1950s, following the empirical turn in research methods, and the growing significance of approaches from economics of education, indicators are now applied in national and international settings. The findings show that the combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach is more successful as the isolated research.

The research is based on secondary analysis. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodology should be undertaken in following the progress of educational systems.

The findings of quantitative research based on educational indicators determine the general public and political discussion and often the discourse in the scientific community. The analysis shows that a critical distance especially when preparing political decisions is a necessary attitude.

To highlight a few critical issues related to indicators that are used to compare organizational practices.

The approach is as follows: to compare the efficacy of qualitative and quantitative indicators; objectivity in identification of processes and practices; and make a distinction between essence and logistics of benchmarking.

For any benchmarking exercise the most important job is objectivity in identification of processes and practices. The distinction between the two is not always apparent. Qualitative evaluation of practices is as important as quantitative evaluation. The quantitative performance indicators for evaluation of best practices come only at the end of a series of critical qualitative analysis of the organizational processes and practices.

The subject of the paper has been the enhancement of the effectiveness of R&D organizations. Such organizations form an important part of the innovation system of a nation, generally known as national innovation system (NIS). NISs of more successful countries are being continuously evaluated and emulated by other countries for attaining respective technological aspirations. This leaves a wide scope for application of benchmarking methodology. The dynamics of networks like NIS being different from that of a business organization, the methodology for best practices has to be refined. The present paper has addressed only the R&D organization part of NIS. Much of the validity of the conclusions will depend upon studies on NIS in particular and organizations not driven by profit motive in general.

The exact definition of the organization in terms of its mandate, long‐term vision and source of competence is the critical task. This is an important lesson for extending benchmarking exercise beyond business enterprises. The study envisages that the methodology would have wide scope of application for organizational restructuring of R&D organizations. However, methodology has to be refined depending on the specificity of the problem of R&D organizations.

It is in presenting the comparative efficacy of qualitative and quantitative indicators for R&D organizations and also in highlighting the importance of benchmarking, the essence of organizational practices, to arrive at the logistics.

The purpose of this study is to explore some quantitative indicators from the social network analysis, observe the variations of these indicators over time and determine whether these indicators fit into the traditional team development stages model or theory. The primary focus is on the perspective of social interaction rather than the suitability of the indicator, i.e. the authors will not determine the optimal indicators nor compare the performance of different indicators. This study aims to propose a quantitative method to identify the development stages of virtual teams.

Two phases were designed in this study. The first phase was a simple study to prove the preliminary ideas and explore which quantitative indicators would be suitable for analysis. In total, 16 undergraduates were randomly assigned to two virtual teams. They were required to complete an information system (IS) project through virtual teamwork and use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to communicate with each other. After proving the preliminary ideas, the authors collected communication data of the 30 virtual teams working on IS projects in the second phase. The total duration of this process was two months.

The findings practically identified three stages, which were found to be consistent with that of the previous qualitative studies. In the initial (inclusion) stage, intensity had an upward trend. In the second (control) stage, centralization had an upward trend. In the final (affection) stage, intensity and density had upward trends and centralization had a downward trend. Both density and centralization also became smooth in this final stage. The conclusion can serve as a basis for further studies in virtual team development.

A successful virtual team will help industries to reduce their costs and increase performance and benefits. The findings will help industries quickly and objectively identify which stage they are at. This quantified approach will provide managers and leaders with a simple, useful way to highlight the needs for managing different aspects of team behavior at each stage of development. After establishing this approach, managers and leaders will be able to make plans to improve existing processes, set priorities, provide suitable principles and guidelines, etc., and eventually improve virtual team performance.

This study aims to construct a system of indicators for measuring the internationalization of universities allowing comparative self-assessment by universities in Asia.

To achieve the aforementioned research purpose, the authors conducted three surveys and held an expert roundtable discussion. Two surveys were conducted, one in Japan and the other in Asia, to identify important indicators for measuring the internationalization of universities. Additionally, a survey of experts was conducted to identify effective indicators for benchmarking internationalization among universities in Asia. An analysis of each survey was examined during the roundtable discussion, and a system of internationalization indicators was constructed.

The three survey results showed similarities and differences between the relative importance accorded to 53 internationalization indicators by universities in Japan and in other Asian countries, as well as in the experts' perspectives on the effectiveness of each indicator for benchmarking. An analysis of those surveys resulted in 24 core internationalization indicators categorized into six key dimensions of university internationalization.

This study proposed a system of internationalization indicators based on an analysis of empirical research targeting universities in Asia. The resulting system reflects not only the opinions of academic experts but also the perspectives of its potential users, administrators in Asian universities. It consists of six internationalization dimensions with a manageable number of indicators, 24. These include both quantitative indicators and checklists of internationalization activities which can be used as quantitative or qualitative indicators.

The paper aims to present the core part of the research work done within the FP7 OPEN HOUSE project, aiming to merge existing methodologies for sustainability assessment of buildings towards a common view, applicable as an open access assessment method across European Union (EU). One of the principle tasks was to evaluate the applicability of proposed indicators in EU countries with different legal frameworks, climate conditions, status and condition of the building stock and construction tradition.

To reach the goal, it had to be established first whether the pre-selected indicators suit the purpose in countries different from each other regarding various influential factors. A questionnaire survey based on close-ended quantitative thematic questions was performed to evaluate the acceptability and relevance of each indicator in national contexts, thus defining the path for the final protocol of selection criteria for the OPEN HOUSE method.

The responses enabled and justified necessary minor corrections and regrouping to define the full (56 indicators) and core (30 indicators) indicator sets, demonstrating that the system is applicable in EU countries. This task made ground for finalisation of the OPEN HOUSE method: definition of evaluation procedures and sustainability performance levels and testing of the approach on demo cases.

This paper shows how the research team tackled the problem of limited use of building sustainability assessment methods due to specific boundary conditions by determining a widely applicable set of categories and related indicators based upon an extensive analysis of existing assessment methods, standardisation development, formal guidelines and strategic (inter)national frameworks.

The advances in green city growth are widely discussed in extant literature. The benefits of green cities to urban development in recent discussions of sustainability and sustainable development are well documented and cannot be overemphasised. Although a growing study on green building development in developing countries has been advanced in literature, there is a paucity of studies that explore green cities in developing countries. Moreover, evidence of studies that have focussed on green cities development in Ghana is lacking. Because of this identified knowledge gap, the purpose of this study is to establish the indicators/attributes for measuring the level of greenness of cities in developing countries.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the indicators/attributes for measuring the level of greenness of cities in developing countries. This study has adopted the pragmatism as its undergirding research philosophy and the deductive research approach. In terms of methodological choice, quantitative research strategy was used to collect data from experts in sustainable urban development. The primary data retrieved from this study was analysed using descriptive statistics, relative importance index and one-sample t-test. The reliability and validity of this study were measured with the Cronbach’s alpha test.

This study established eight indicators for measuring green city development: air quality, water, sanitation, land use, health and safety, transportation, energy and building and construction. It was discovered that the development of green cities should enhance air quality, improve water production and supply, improve management in sanitation, promote mixed and integrative land use, maintain the health and safety of city dwellers, reduce the demand for transportation and formalise public transport, adopt renewable and efficient energy technologies and promote sustainable construction and green buildings. These indicators are key to policymaking and implementation of green cities development.

This study focusses primarily on Ghana; however, the findings of this study do not limit the generalisability, as it can be used as an example for other developing countries.

Theoretically, this study adopted quantitative indicators that are reproducible in another geographical context. This study contributively adds to the discourse on sustainability, especially in Ghana, and can be a source of reference to motivate others to conduct further research in related areas. The outcomes of this study will help the local government, policymakers, city stakeholders and industry expertise to gain insights of the overall indicators that underpin green city development.

This paper attempts to posit in literature the foremost appraisal of green city indicators adaptive in Ghana, which could motivate other developing countries to develop their own green cities.

To construct a scientific and reasonable indicator system, it is necessary to design a set of standardized indicator primary selection and optimization inspection process. The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical guidance and reference standards for the indicator system design process, laying a solid foundation for the application of the indicator system, by systematically exploring the expert evaluation method to optimize the index system to enhance its credibility and reliability, to improve its resolution and accuracy and reduce its objectivity and randomness.

The paper is based on system theory and statistics, and it designs the main line of “relevant theoretical analysis – identification of indicators – expert assignment and quality inspection” to achieve the design and optimization of the indicator system. First, the theoretical basis analysis, relevant factor analysis and physical process description are used to clarify the comprehensive evaluation problem and the correlation mechanism. Second, the system structure analysis, hierarchical decomposition and indicator set identification are used to complete the initial establishment of the indicator system. Third, based on expert assignment method, such as Delphi assignments, statistical analysis, t-test and non-parametric test are used to complete the expert assignment quality diagnosis of a single index, the reliability and validity test is used to perform single-index assignment correction and consistency test is used for KENDALL coordination coefficient and F-test multi-indicator expert assignment quality diagnosis.

Compared with the traditional index system construction method, the optimization process used in the study standardizes the process of index establishment, reduces subjectivity and randomness, and enhances objectivity and scientificity.

The innovation point and value of the paper are embodied in three aspects. First, the system design process of the combined indicator system, the multi-dimensional index screening and system optimization are carried out to ensure that the index system is scientific, reasonable and comprehensive. Second, the experts’ background is comprehensively evaluated. The objectivity and reliability of experts’ assignment are analyzed and improved on the basis of traditional methods. Third, aim at the quality of expert assignment, conduct t-test, non-parametric test of single index, and multi-optimal test of coordination and importance of multiple indicators, enhance experts the practicality of assignment and ensures the quality of expert assignment.

The purpose of this study is to undertake an evaluation of the resilient capacity of the infrastructure systems in the city of Wuhan. This evaluation focuses on the ability of the infrastructure to cope with extreme weather from multiple dimensions and to propose effective interventions against such risks.

This research draws on a review and synthesis of the theory of resilience and adopts the literature induction method to build an evaluation index for five urban systems, namely: roads; water supply and drainage; energy and power; urban disaster reduction; and communications. Index data from the period of 1990–2019 are combined with the views of experts from Wuhan and analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) to calculate the weightings of the five urban systems. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is then used to investigate the resilient capacity of these five urban infrastructure systems in the city.

Generally, the results show that the resilience of the infrastructure systems in Wuhan are at a high level. Based on the results, the communications and roads systems are found to have higher levels of resilience, while the disaster mitigation system is found to have a relatively low level of resilience. Recommendations are suggested to help improve resilience and prioritize investments in the development of the city's infrastructure systems.

The development of these specific indicators and quantitative requirements have not been studied in detail, so a more comprehensive, systematic evaluation of quantitative indicators and methods of urban infrastructure resilience is still required. In addition, the research on the resilience of urban infrastructure under extreme weather is still in its infancy, and it is essential to further increase the quantitative assessment of the resilience of urban infrastructure under construction. This will also be indispensable information in the subsequent implementation of a resilient planning process.

This research builds a rigorous and reliable evaluation model that avoids any subjective bias in the results and represents a new approach to evaluate the resilience of the infrastructure systems in the city of Wuhan, which could be applied to other cities.