[Evaluation indicators of biomedical research]

The evaluation of R + D activities and the politics that promote them is essential to justify the investment done as well as to optimize their results. In this context, the evaluation should be understood as the group of techniques and procedures that allow obtaining useful information to take decisions in the field of R + D. This article has two main objectives: (i) to present the basic concepts associated with the evaluation of research, and (ii) to offer a general and updated panoramic view of which are the most frequently used methods to evaluate research. For that, in addition to considering the most conventional evaluation, focused on scientific results, we also think about the need of evaluating the impacts that scientific results generate on the social-economic context, and that in the case of biomedical research, these may be presented in terms of quality and life expectancy, improvements in patient care, etc. Therefore, the motivation of present article is to give a modern and updated perspective that allows the reader who is interested to study in-depth this emerging field of Science, if he/she wants.