My name is Alexander Schniedermann. I am a researcher and PhD student in what might generally be called “science on science”. In particular, I focus on standardization of scientific publications in biomedicine, especially reporting guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Standardization in science is interesting because the latter is usually described as a creative, innovative and independent activity while the former involves making things similar, reagulate or foreclose alternative approaches. I hope to learn something about the thin line of where scholars accept new standards voluntarily because they find the benfits outweighing the costs. My research is mixed-methods - I make qualitative interviews with various actor groups to explore phenomena, interprete quantitative results and learn about causalities. I also do quantitative research, especially bibliometrics, in order to trace the dissemination of standards and learn about the characteristics of standardized products and users of standards. Check out my institutional pages and ORCID profile for a list of talks and publications.

CV

Professional & Projects

• Since October 2018
  Research Associate at the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW), Berlin
• 2017 - 2018
  Student assistant at Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning (IHF), Munich
• March 2017
  Internship at Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning (IHF), Munich

Education & Summer Schools

• since 2021
  Doctoral student at Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS). Leiden University, Netherlands.
• July 2022
  Summer School “Open Science: ambivalences and tensions”. Donostia, Spain.
• July 2019
  European Summer School for Scientometrics ESSS. Leuven, Belgium.
• 2016
  History of Science (semester abroad). University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• 2015 - 2019
  “History, Economics and Philosophy of Science (HEPS)” (Master of Arts). Bielefeld University, Germany.
• 2011 - 2015
  “Philosophy” and “Political Science” (Bachelor of Arts). Bielefeld University, Germany.

Other

• Board member & Treasurer
  stsing e.V., October 2021 - October 2023.
• Doctoral students’ representative
  (DZHW), March 2021 - October 2023.
• Workgroups and other ponds I tipped my toe into
  DZHW Open Science Cluster; WG Visiualization & WG Science on Science of German Competence Network Bibliometrics;

Skills and regular activities

• Academic writing in English and occasionally German. I use Markdown, Obsidian Notes, Word & GoogleDoc
• Data engineering in PostgreSQL, DBeaver and pgadmin (I run a relational PubMed at home which was a lot of fun setting up)
• Quantitative data analysis in SQL, Python (Anaconda & Spyder), RStudio and ggplot2
• Qualitative research and analysis in MAXQDA. I also have some experience with audio processing in Cubase
• Everything else: Git, Microsoft Teams, Powerpoint, Excel & GoogleSheets
• I used to code in Java 8 and Haskell during my studies

Portfolio

Publications

• Schniedermann, A. (2023). Who writes what? The academic age patterns of review genres in biomedicine. 27th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (STI 2023). preprint Orvium
• Schniedermann, A. (2022). Shaping the Qualities, Values and Standards of Science. How Reporting Guidelines Improve the Transparency of Biomedical Research. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 7, 846822. link
• Schniedermann, A., Blümel, C., & Simons, A. (2022). On Top of the Hierarchy: How Guidelines Shape Systematic Reviewing in Biomedicine. In S. Ehlers & S. Esselborn (Eds.), Evidence in Action between Science and Society: Constructing, Validating and Contesting Knowledge (pp. 102–126). Routledge. link
• Simons, A., & Schniedermann, A. (2021). The neglected politics behind evidence-based policy: Shedding light on instrument constituency dynamics. Policy & Politics, 49(3), 1–17. link
• Schniedermann, A. (2021). A comparison of systematic reviews and guideline-based systematic reviews in medical studies. Scientometrics, 126(12), 9829–9846. link
• Blümel, C., & Schniedermann, A. (2020). Studying review articles in scientometrics and beyond: A research agenda. Scientometrics, 124(1), 711–728. link

Academic Talks

• Schniedermann, A. (2022). Standardization in Science. With Reporting Gidelines towards Transparency and Open Science in Biomedicine. Presentation at Interdisciplinary International Graduate Summer School “Open science”: ambivalences and tensions ‐ New borderlands between science, technology and society., University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, San Sebastian, Spain.
• Schniedermann, A. (2022). Licht am Ende des Tunnels? Mit Transparenzzstandards in Richtung Open Science. In U. Dirnagl & A. Scheel (Vorsitz), Meta-Research. At the Symposium Wissenschaftsforschung im Fokus - Potentiale und neue Perspektiven, VolkswagenStiftung, Hannover.
• Simons. A., & Schniedermann, A. (2022). Science communication in the German press during the corona pandemic. A citation context analysis. Presentation at DVPW Section Poltik Wissenschaft und Technik, 04.03.2022 (online).
• Schniedermann, A. (2021). Reporting Guidelines and their Mission to increase Trust in Biomedicine. Presentation at the conference Trust in Science, Research group “Trust in information”, HLRS, Stuttgart (online).
• Schniedermann, A., & Blümel, C. (2021). The Resolution of Epistemic Crises in Biomedicine: The Stage of Transparency. Conference presentation at 4S Annual Meeting 2021, Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
• Schniedermann, A. (2020). Function, Reception and Performativity of Review Literature in Science, in the Context of the Bibliometrics-driven Incentive Structure. Presentation at the I²SoS-Colloquium Summer Semester 2020, Bielefeld University, 14.07.2020, Bielefeld.
• Schniedermann, A., & Blümel, C. (2020). On top of the hierarchy: evidence practices and practicing evidence of systematic reviews in biomedicine. Conference presentation at Practicing Evidence-Evidence Practices, DFG Forschungsgruppe, 19.2.-21.2.2020, Munich.
• Simons. A., & Schniedermann, A. (2020). Instrument Constituencies as Nexus Actors - Their Role in Mediating Between Science and Policy Fields. Presentation at AG Politische Soziologie, Prof. Dr. Holger Straßheim, 15.01.2020, Bielefeld.
• Blümel, C., & Schniedermann, A. (2019). Studying review articles in scientometrics: methods, topics, and future prospects. Workshop given at the 17th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, 2nd-5th September 2019, Rome, Italy.

Code & Data

coming soon…