This joint publication of the OECD and Eurostat is the outcome of a collective effort of all national delegates and representatives from international organisations participating in the OECD Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI).
Several people invested considerable time and effort to help steer the revision process on behalf of the entire NESTI group. The present fourth edition came together thanks to the leadership and dedication of the members of the Oslo Manual revision steering group (OMSG). Chaired by the NESTI Chair Svein Olav Nås (Research Council, Norway), the OMSG was set up by OECD and Eurostat to steer the revision process from inception to publication. A diverse group of experts comprising Ales Capek (Eurostat), Alessandra Colecchia (OECD), Tomohiro Ijichi (NISTEP and Seijo University, Japan), John Jankowski (NSF/NCSES, United States), Carsten Olsson (Eurostat), Christian Rammer (ZEW, Germany), Monica Salazar (Inter-American Development Bank) and Martin Schaaper (ITU, formerly UNESCO Institute for Statistics) stepped up to the challenges set out in the revision’s terms of reference. The OMSG deliberated frequently, using (and sometimes abusing) the opportunities provided by online remote communication across different time zones, to provide a collegial and effective interface between the working party and the drafting team. This allowed the work to progress in between meetings and fulfil the NESTI vision and agreements.
Anthony Arundel (University of Maastricht and consultant to the OECD secretariat), Fernando Galindo-Rueda (OECD) and Christian Rammer (ZEW) prepared, on request from the OMSG, a series of chapter outlines and drafts for discussion and review. These drafts represented the backbone of the present manual. Anthony Arundel took responsibility for editing the entire manual, ensuring consistency and the timely delivery of the manual for discussion and approval by delegates. Vladimir López-Bassols (consultant to the OECD secretariat) supported the OECD in the final copy and style editing of the manuscript and the preparation of the glossary of terms. Fred Gault (UNU-MERIT, TUT-IERI and consultant to the OECD secretariat) provided additional editorial support and assisted the NESTI Chair in outreach and liaison activities with other international organisations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The revision work undertaken by NESTI was facilitated by the S&T indicators unit in the Economic Analysis and Statistics (EAS) Division of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), led by Fernando Galindo-Rueda with support from Michela Bello and Daniel Ker. On the part of the Eurostat STI Working Group (STI WG) Secretariat, Giulio Perani and Gregor Kyi within Unit G4 Innovation and Digitalisation at Eurostat’s Business and Trade Statistics Directorate played an instrumental role getting the revision off the ground and defining its final scope. Carsten Olsson, as the Unit G4 head, co-chaired the OMSG in the initial phase of the project. His successor, Ales Capek, facilitated the final signature of the co-publication agreement between the OECD and Eurostat. Formal oversight within the OECD was provided by Alessandra Colecchia as Head of the EAS division. STI Director Andrew Wyckoff and Deputy Director Dirk Pilat provided guidance and comments on the drafts.
This edition would not have been possible without the financial and human resources provided by the following organisations: the United States’ National Science Foundation/National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education, the Research Council of Norway, Eurostat, and the European Commission. These organisations supported work directly related to the revision as well as preparatory, exploratory and methodological work in the years preceding the revision.
Participants in four revision workshops (Oslo, December 2016; Ghent, September 2016; a NESTI meeting in Paris, March 2017; and a NESTI meeting in Madrid, December 2017) provided valuable insights to the discussions and contributed discussion documents and presentations. Additionally, webinars were carried out in June 2016 and October 2017. The December 2017 NESTI meeting was kindly hosted by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), during which the manual was agreed to in principle by delegates.
Workshops organised by the US National Academies of Science and Engineering in Washington DC (through a grant from NSF/NCSES), ZEW in Mannheim, RICYT in San José (Costa Rica), and the OECD Blue Sky Forum in Ghent, provided excellent opportunities to float ideas and proposals with members of the external academic and policy users community.
We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the input from individual and institutional submissions to the online stakeholder consultation process and the chairpersons and delegates of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) and Committee for Statistics and Statistical Policy (CSSP), as well as their national teams, for the feedback provided up until declassification approval.
This work would not have been possible without the additional input of the NESTI Bureau and that of several other OECD and Eurostat colleagues, including IT, publications, communication and administrative support staff. They all contributed to the final printed and online (http://oe.cd/oslomanual) versions of this Manual.
Special gratitude is owed to the experts who initially conceived this manual and worked on it for nearly 30 years to enhance its relevance and quality, overcoming several challenges along the way. It is hoped that they will see this edition as a substantive and worthwhile “innovation” as it is implemented worldwide and inspires new measurement and analysis. The NESTI and STI WG communities, in partnership with experts from all over the world, will strive to make the Oslo Manual guidelines accessible and useful in the coming months and years.
