Science evaluation and social transformations

This editorial and introductory article outlines some of the aspects that are being addressed and questions that are being raised in the subsequent special section on science evaluation. It sets the emergence of new evaluation practices in the context of changing state forms; it reflects on the distinction between internal and external evaluation procedures as an expression of boundaries between fields of social practice or between orders of justification; it suggests the need for distinguishing between foci of evaluation: on research results, on researchers, or on research proposals; and it asks the question if and how different modes of critique lead to different conclusions for remedy.