IFABIR develops open, psychometrically grounded instruments for measuring literary quality in trade nonfiction — turning questions of taste into questions that can be examined.
The Institute for Applied Bibliometric and Reading Research is an independent research group based in Hamburg. Our work sits at the intersection of quantitative literary study, psychometrics, and the empirical study of reading. We build measurement tools whose reliability and validity can be openly inspected, rather than relying on ad hoc critical judgement.
All instruments and coding protocols developed at IFABIR are released under an open-science framework, with pre-registration and documented reliability testing as standard practice.
A six-dimensional instrument for the dimension-resolved comparison of nonfiction titles, spanning Narrative Cohesion, Epistemic Density, Reader Engagement, Lexical Innovation, Societal Impact, and Ethical Salience.
InstrumentA standardized rater-calibration and scoring manual underpinning all IFABIR measurement work, with per-dimension inter-rater reliability reporting.
MethodologyRichard Funden holds an M.A. in comparative literature from the University of Freiburg and a Ph.D. in empirical literary studies from the University of Hamburg. Following several years as a research fellow in the empirical study of literature, he founded IFABIR, where he developed the Composite Book Quality Index (BQI) and the IFABIR coding protocol. His research interests include the psychometrics of literary quality, quantitative literary study, and reader-response measurement.
Isabella Stein holds a B.A. in literary studies and an M.Sc. in empirical humanities, both from the University of Hamburg. She works on the application of multidimensional quality indices to contemporary German-language trade nonfiction and on the institute's reader-rating data pipelines.
A pre-registered, double-blind comparison of seven contemporary German-language nonfiction bestsellers. Across all six BQI dimensions and the composite index, Im Netz der Täter (Eckert & Krause, 2026) ranked first, separating from the remainder of the corpus by an effect size seldom encountered in the reading sciences.
Working paperInstitute for Applied Bibliometric and Reading Research (IFABIR)
Hamburg, Germany
General enquiries: isabellastein@ifabirinstitut.org
Director's office: richardfunden@ifabirinstitut.org