Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Vm. DESCRIBING THE RESOURCE BASE
The organization andfinancing of research 793
General international comparison
I. The Guide-lines for the Elaboration of National Science Policy Studies,
published by the Science Policy Division of UNESCO in 1965,189 set out an overall
model for the systematic collection of information about the scientific activities
of a country as a whole. Unfortunately, it does not distinguish between the
humanities and the social sciences, nor does it ask for a breakdown of the data
on the various disciplines and interdisciplinary mixes of the social sciences. To
make a distinction between the social sciences and the humanities is essential if
international statistics are to be comparable. Within the humanities the histori-
cal sciences should be separated from the ‘arts’, By the arts is meant the crea-
tion and rendering of artistic products in all media and their critical apprecia-
tion in terms of aesthetic judgment and values. The historical sciences can be
combined with the social sciences or kept apart as the task in hand requires.
2. OECD in The Social Sciences and the Policies of Governments168 raised the
question of how far a model (not dissimilar to that developed by UNESCO’s
Science Policy Division) which it had used for collecting information on the
natural sciences could be used also for the social sciences. It pinpointed a key
issue :
The Manual covers only details of the collection of research and development statis-
tics and excludes ‘related scientific activities.’ These related scientific activities are, how-
ever, particularly important and closely linked to research in the social sciences, as
they provide and disseminate a great deal of the raw material for the researchers, partic-
ularly in economics and sociology. Lack of reliable census data or trade statistics
can, for instance, be as much of a drag on economists as lack of research funds.
The inclusion of general purpose economic and social statistics (information de
base) is essential in any comprehensive account of the social science activities of
a country. They need, of course, to be separately recorded from other types of
research expenditure.
3. Another issue is the fact that as yet an analogue to ‘development work‘ as
opposed to basic and applied research scarcely exists in the social sciences. It
has become conventional to compare the amount spent on the social sciences
(with the collection of basic economic and statistical data excluded) and the
total R & D expenditure of a country. This yields a grotesquely low proportion
for the social sciences, as technological costs of development projects based in
the physical sciences account for the overwhelming proportion of the total R &
D figure. International science statistics would be better made up with develop-
ment expenditure separately shown.
4. A general upwards trend would appear to exist in social science expendi-
ture, however wide the variations between countries. National science statistics
require to be kept so that systematic trend comparisons are possible. From the
imperfect evidence available expenditure on the social sciences seems to be
increasing most rapidly in those countries where is it already the greatest.
5. Another commonly followed international convention is to express overall
R & D expenditures as a percentage of GNP or some equivalent statistic repre-