Profile and performance of the university research groups

Abstract

This paper profiles the 'research groups' at the University of Barcelona in order to identify the key success factors of the best groups. A factor analysis was carried out to determine the groups' defining characteristics, which are stability, size, quality of publications and quantity of scientific output. Then, a cluster analysis was applied to the 169 groups, and three cluster types were identified. One of the clusters stood out by virtue of the impact of its publications and in terms of the general quality of its output. A comparison was carried out between the Excellent cluster and other groups.