Valencia is the venue of the 21st International Conference on Science & Technology Indicators, that will be held from 14-16 September 2016. The conference aims to stimulate reflection on the challenges posed to S&T indicator development and use in geographical, cognitive or social spaces that are peripheral or marginal to the centres of economic, scientific or technological activity. The focus is also on emerging areas of research and innovation that are inadequately described by existing, quantitative or qualitative indicators.
We propose to identify, describe and analyse the problems that emerge in situations and spaces where indicators are used beyond their scope of validity. The conference aims to offer an international platform to propose, and discuss, alternative approaches and indicators.
The conference will consider both weak (technical) and strong (socio-political) notions of periphery. The weak notion understands peripheries as areas that are not adequately covered or targeted by current indicators. The main concern here is the existence of indicator biases; the challenge lies in developing approaches and indicators that provide a more accurate or valid representation of science, technology and innovation activities. More information is available at www.sti2016.org