Research quality criteria in the Creative Arts

This paper investigates research quality criteria in the Creative Arts (CA).The CA has been introduced into the higher education and researchsector over the last three decades. It is thus a relatively new researchfield and there is little empirical knowledge on how outputs in this fieldshould be evaluated. Our study applies a mixed-method approach toassess the relevance of quality criteria used in performance-basedresearch funding systems (PRFSs) in 10 countries. The results of aqualitative analysis of interviews with artists-academics (N= 67) andJoint Correspondence Analysis show that when art is evaluated in thecontext of academic research, both the traditional indicators of artisticquality as well as the cognitive and research-related aspects of the artsare believed to be significant. The JCA analysis also showed that themajority of our respondents found both extrinsic quality criteria (relatedto reputation and prestige) and intrinsic criteria (related to cognitionand development) relevant.