Evaluating the research capacity of universities is an important task for governments and other stakeholders. The author tries to construct a method of quick and accurate evaluation based on objective factors.

According to the paper, evaluation is based on 11 factors: research team (the human factor); scientific research base (equipment, buildings, facilities); technological knowledge; research funding; research management; information receiving and processing capacity; knowledge accumulation and technological reserve capacity; scientific research and technological innovation; capacity of knowledge release; adaptive capacity; and scientific decision-making capacity.

Zhang applies the grey system methodology suggested by Deng Julong in 1982. The most important feature of this approach is that it doesn’t require a complete set of sample data and its distribution. The methodology is applied in a test case evaluating 31 universities.

The author concludes that “to improve their research capacity, [universities] need to improve all aspects of their research strength.” The recommendation to improve on all factors to achieve better overall results seems to be reasonable. However, in a real-life scenario, with limited resources, improving all aspects at the same time is rarely possible. Also, the notion of spreading efforts over all factors will give the desired results only if all factors are given the same or similar weight in the evaluation. This assumption may not be viable in real environments. Assigning the same weight to such factors as, for example, research buildings and research teams would be questionable.

The paper lacks a clear definition of the research problem and an explanation of the results. The size of the conference paper doesn’t allow for a comprehensive description of the method. Finally, the language of the paper is not always clear.