How to conduct a multi-item research assessment in bibliometric studies? Theoretical support and empirical evidence

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of how to form a multi-item assessment and what approaches can be applied for researchers.

This study proposes three ways to form a multi-item assessment (i.e. separate, formative and reflective approaches) and further makes a comparison between these three approaches.

The results show that multi-item assessment, particularly for formative and reflective constructs, has greater explanatory power in the research model. Finally, this study provides a roadmap to guide future researchers’ decision strategy for selecting multi-item assessments.

Due to the multi-faceted nature of research, using a single indicator to judge a scholar’s research performance will never reveal a multi-faceted picture and can easily result in measurement bias. In this vein, researchers should use different evaluation approaches and indicators to address various forms of research outcomes. However, prior studies rarely adopt multi-item scales to evaluate research performance and seldom discuss how to build a composite construct of research performance. This study aims to fill this research gap in the literature.