STEM colonization: Applying hard sciences' socio‐organisational patterns and evaluation procedures to the soft sciences in Croatia

Academic systems are undergoing changes in which the social organisation of research as well as patterns of scientific productivity in the humanities and social sciences progressively resemble those in hard sciences. The hard and soft sciences are increasingly converging. This development can be observed in (a) publishing patterns, (b) the division of research, and (c) the internationalisation of research. This study explored the extent to which these changes occurring in academic systems in terms of a transformation of disciplinary practices are also becoming a trend in transitional post‐socialist countries. We used Croatia as a case of a post socialist transitional context and compared it to Slovenia, a country with a similar past but somewhat different science policies and strategies. The results point to increasing convergence in some soft disciplines, visible in projectification and internationalisation of academic work as well as a significant change in the publishing patterns.