  One of the critical issues in national research assessment exercises concerns
the choice of whether to evaluate the entire scientific portfolio of the
institutions or a subset composed of the best products. Under the second
option, the capacities of the institutions to select the appropriate
researchers and their best products (the UK case) or simply the best products
of every researcher (the Italian case) becomes critical, both for purposes of
correct assessment of the real quality of research in the institutions
evaluated, and for the selective funding that follows. In this work, through
case studies of three Italian universities, we analyze the efficiency of the
product selection that is intended to maximize the universities' scores in the
current national research assessment exercise, the results of which will be the
basis for assigning an important share of public financing over the coming
years.
