The Collegio Carlo Alberto fosters research and education in the social sciences that are consistent with the values and practices of the international academic community. Its main aim is excellence in research, teaching, and policy design at a level that is comparable to the world’s top departments and research centers.
As part of accomplishing this mission, the Collegio periodically selects a small number of scholars for the position of Fellow or Affiliate. Eligible scholars must hold an academic position at the University of Torino at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher, in any of the disciplines present at the Collegio, and submit an expression of interest in order to be considered for election.
Fellows and Affiliates are expected to contribute to the growth and development of the Collegio and are expected to actively participate in a wide range of activities including seminars, conferences, and faculty meetings. Fellows are elected for a period of six years while Affiliates are elected for four years; both positions may be renewed.
Applicants are selected based on the quality of their academic achievement and promise.
Different levels of seniority can be considered for either position, although Fellows are typically chosen from more accomplished scholars.
Expressions of interest should be for one or the other position and include a CV and a statement, no longer than 1000 words, describing both the research projects that applicants intend to pursue during their tenure, and how they plan to benefit from, and contribute to, the activities and the profile of the Collegio. Research projects that match the research topics set out in the Collegio’s website are encouraged.
English is the Collegio’s working language hence the mastery of its written and oral form is a prerequisite of selection.
An ad hoc committee composed of Collegio Carlo Alberto faculty members, representing the range of disciplines in the Collegio, will consider the expressions of interest and select the Fellows and Affiliates based on agreement across the disciplines. In exceptional cases, the committee may seek the opinion of external referees.
Fellows:
In the case of Fellows, a composite of one’s career achievements is considered. This includes, first and foremost, the demonstrable quality of the candidate’s publishing record and impact. This record should demonstrate an international perspective in terms of publication outlets and collaboration networks. Special attention will be given to the publication of first-rate research that is relevant to policy debates. Further criteria considered as an integral part of academic achievements are the ability to obtain national and international competitive research grants, to organize high quality academic events, and experience and quality of teaching in doctoral programs. Affiliates who aim to become Fellows will have shown leadership and good citizenship at the Collegio.
Affiliates:
In the case of Affiliates, the same type of career achievements are considered adjusting for the level of seniority. Much weight is placed on candidates’ promise of future achievements.
In order to establish the quality and impact of candidates’ publication records, each of the three disciplines that are present at the Collegio adopt the standards typical of their field. Although below we provide an outline of these criteria, it is important to note that these are guidelines, and that the Collegio endeavors to keep an open mind to allow academic merit based on factors that may be hard to classify, detect, and reward.
Economics, Finance, and Statistics
In Economics and related fields (Statistics and Finance), a number of international journals are considered top, for example, the well-known top 5 journals (Econometrica, QJE, JPE, AER, and RESTUD), the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series b-Statistical Methodology. Rather than provide a full ranking of journals and other publication forms, research quality will be guided by the rules used by the Collegio’s research incentive scheme. This classification is based on the Article Influence Score (AIS) of a journal, as computed by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of Thomson Reuters (see https://www.carloalberto.org/research/research-incentives/). Article Influence Score (AIS), accounts for the distribution of journals within each scientific area, allowing a uniform criteria to be used across broad scientific areas. The value of the AIS is that it has a straightforward interpretation: an AIS value of 1 is the average influence in a given discipline, a value of 2 means an influence equal to twice the average influence, and so on. Journals will be classified in Tier A, B or C, depending on whether the journal’s maximum AIS over the last three years is above 5, between 2 and 5, or between 1 and 2. The AIS will be discounted for journals publishing surveys. Based on this, Economics, Finance, and Statistics have about 20 journals in Tier A (among others, the top 5 journals in Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal Macro/AP/EP, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of the European Economic Association, Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series b-Statistical Methodology), 183 journals in Tier B (among others, top general interest journals like Economic Journal, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, top field journal, like Bernoulli, Review of Finance, and 220 journals in Tier C (mainly second tier field journals). Articles published in other subject categories of the Social Sciences are also going to be considered, as long as they are broadly related to Economics, Finance or Statistics. The valuation of research is a complex task, and while being guided by citations, the committee will also take into account individual papers, including working papers, the number of co-authors, the fit with the field of study, and how recently papers were published.
Law
In the field of law, reliable bibliometric measures concerning the quality of legal research are currently unavailable. Hence, for the foreseeable future, the quality of legal research will be assessed using qualitative criteria.
High quality legal research is not represented by a single scientific approach. Nonetheless, original works that meet demanding quality standards are all characterized by a coherent set of methodological premises, a clear definition of the research questions, a careful examination of the state of the art, and by conclusions that go beyond the state of the art. These criteria can be met by publications that are purely theoretical or those that use empirical data—whether they focus only on law or have a multidisciplinary dimension—if they are sufficiently ambitious. The importance or relevance of the research questions is as well taken into account. A consistent pattern of publication in leading international journals and/or with leading academic publishers, typically provides strong indications of excellence in research.
Social and Political Sciences
In SPS, the means of evaluation are in a state of flux. On the one hand, there is a convergence towards standards similar to those of economics. There are a number of international journals considered “top” for impact and for the low ratio of accepted papers. This trend applies to sociology and political science generally, as well as to related fields. Publications in generalist science journals—such as Science, Nature, or PNAS—are also highly prized. On the other hand, in making its selection, the Collegio will also consider that there are a substantial number of scholars whose main published output consists of books and this will continue to be the case for an indefinite future. In the case of books, it is customary to attach particular value to those published by international academic presses and high-end publishers that have manuscripts peer-reviewed.