A rejoinder to the comments of Benedetto et al. on the paper “Critical remarks on the Italian research assessment exercise VQR 2011–2014” (Journal of Informetrics, 11(2): 337–357)

The paper “Critical remarks on the Italian research assessment exercise VQR 2011–2014” (Franceschini & Maisano, 2017) analyzed some vulnerabilities of the recently concluded Italian assessment exercise. Some apical (former and current)members of ANVUR promptly commented on our criticisms through a letter to the editor (Benedetto, Checchi, Graziosi, & Malgarini, 2017). We believe that this letter is not very convincing. In the following, we provide a rejoinder to the comments directed to our paper.