Values
What A&H scholars recognise as constituting good scholarship.
Evidence tiles defined
1st First Edition · A handbook for implementation and further development
The Values-based Scholarship Array
An approach to evaluation of Arts and Humanities (A&H) scholarship that is rooted in the values of scholars and the audiences their work is intended to reach.
- Edition
- First
- Published by
- Elsevier × HKBU
- Launch
- Nov 2026
- DOI
- To be assigned
01 The framework
What is the Values-based Scholarship Array?
Arts and Humanities scholarship should be evaluated on terms that reflect its own values and audiences, not those borrowed from the sciences.
The Values-based Scholarship Array (VBSA) is the result of a collaboration between the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and Elsevier and offers an approach to evaluation of Arts and Humanities (A&H) scholarship that is rooted in the values of scholars and the audiences their work is intended to reach.
The VBSA emphasises the distinctive aspects of A&H scholarship that sets it apart from research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) disciplines. It has been developed as an alternative approach to evaluation models that are more applicable to STEMM modes of knowledge production and utilisation.
We are sharing this approach for free use and adaptation, with a view to furthering our collective understanding of how to appropriately value the contributions of A&H scholars and their scholarship globally.
I am a scholar who advances knowledge and/or practice and/or pedagogy as an esteemed member of a community through collaboration, collegiality, and leadership. My scholarship is intended to impact other scholars, students, publics, practitioners and policymakers.
02 The array
Eight values. Five audiences. One array.
VBSA turns each value and audience into a set of evidence tiles, which may be applicable to different individuals at different career stages and can be supported by qualitative evidence as well as quantitative indicators.
Audience
Who the work is intended to reach — and be accountable to.
Evidence tiles defined
03 The array in full
Every value and every audience, mapped to its evidence tiles
The two tables below are the working heart of the framework. A hatched cell marks a place where the community has not yet agreed an indicator — those gaps are an invitation, not an omission.
04 In practice
Selected HKBU Scholar Profiles
Two of the profiles in the report, with the percentiles recorded for each scholar. Every figure below is the report's; the wording of each axis is the report's too.
Percentile among scholars in the same Subject within the supplied HKBU corpus. Category score = equal-weight mean percentile of available mapped indicators. Values use Handbook Table 1; audiences use Handbook Table 2 only.
05 How it was built
Operationalising the array at HKBU
Before the array could be tested it needed a population. The pilot cohort was assembled through a multi-source process, deliberately weighted towards breadth across career stages and output types rather than towards the easiest data to find.
- Pilot cohort
- 300+ scholars engaged in A&H scholarship at HKBU
- Drawn from
- FASS with the School of Creative Arts and the School of Communication
- Identifiers
- 3 Scopus Author ID, ORCID, and a career-stage proxy
- Compiled by
- OIRP with HKBU Library and the project's Special Academic Advisors
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01
Set out the principles
Two principles carried over from how the array was built: that evaluation should be more legitimate rather than merely more data-rich, and that evaluatees should retain agency over how their record is read.
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02
Extract the master roster
Current academic staff lists from the Human Resources Office, filtered by primary affiliation in A&H-relevant departments and academies within FASS — including the Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy; the Academy of Language and Culture; and the Academy of Geography, Sociology and International Studies — plus overlapping units in the School of Creative Arts.
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03
Cross-reference against IRIMS
The lists were matched against HKBU's Integrated Research Information and Management System (IRIMS, powered by Elsevier Pure) to identify researchers with A&H-classified outputs or self-reported interests in the target fields.
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04
Widen beyond bibliometrics
Departmental websites, scholars.hkbu.edu.hk profiles and direct input from academic advisors ensured inclusive coverage of practice-based, creative and interdisciplinary scholars who are under-represented in purely bibliometric sources.
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05
Enrich and validate the metadata
English and Chinese names, current position and department, Scopus Author Identifier where available and manually validated, ORCID iD, and a proxy for career stage — first publication year, or years since the highest degree.
This curated roster enabled high-confidence linkage to external databases via persistent identifiers wherever possible, while name-based matching with manual review and institutional context was applied for sources without identifiers. The resulting linked dataset supports both granular individual profiles and responsible aggregation to departmental, faculty or institutional levels.3
- 3Cohort selection as documented in the VBSA Handbook, First Edition, Chapter Four: Operationalising the VBSA.
06 Who made it
A collaboration between Elsevier and Hong Kong Baptist University
The VBSA offers an approach to the evaluation of Arts and Humanities scholarship that is rooted in the values of scholars and the audiences their work is intended to reach.
It was developed with, and reviewed by, scholars and evaluation specialists across the sector — because a framework for judging A&H scholarship has to be owned by the community it judges.
07 Contributors
The people behind the array
Supporting organisations, contributing authors, reviewers and advisors — listed so that the framework carries names, not just institutions.
Supporting organisations
Elsevier
Contributing research analytics, data infrastructure and expertise.
Hong Kong Baptist University
Convening the array and anchoring it in institutional practice.
Worldwide Universities Network
A global network of research universities, supporting wider testing of the array.
Contributing authors
Reviewers
- Margaret ToppingQUB
- Alis OanceaOxford
- Michael OchsnerETH Zurich & FORS Lausanne
- Julia MelkersArizona State
- Stuart BrocklehurstExeter
- Chris TylerUCL
- Molly Morgan-JonesBritish Academy
- Sarah CowanBritish Academy
- Eleanor HopkinsBritish Academy
- Pablo RobleroBritish Academy
- Dawn FreshwaterWorldwide Universities Network
- Aiping LyuHong Kong Baptist University
- Basak CandmirElsevier
- Joan YinElsevier
- Atti EmeczElsevier
- Bo AlroeElsevier
Special thanks
- Dr Nick FowlerChief Academic Officer, Elsevier
- Professor Martin WongProvost, Hong Kong Baptist University
08 Milestones & events
Where the array is going next
The framework is published as it develops, not after the fact.
Concept Initiation
Scoping the gap between A&H values and inherited evaluation practice.
CompleteShare the VBSA Framework
Presenting the array to the research evaluation community at RESSH 2026 in Firenze.
CompleteLaunch the First Edition Handbook
The full Handbook, published openly for institutions and scholars.
In preparationTo be Furtherly Developed
Pilots with implementing institutions, and refinement of the empty tiles.
Open09 Get in touch
Questions about implementing the VBSA?
Tell us about your institution, your evaluation context, or the values you are trying to make visible. We will point you to the right part of the Handbook — or to the team that can help you adapt it.
Email
contact@vbsarray.org
Office of Institutional Research and Planning
Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Research Collaboration Unit
Elsevier
Send us a message
03 · The array in full
Leave a comment
Tell us what is missing, or what does not fit your discipline. Comments are read by the VBSA team; they are not published.