Improving how research is assessed

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About

The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. The declaration was developed in 2012 during the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco. It has become a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines and all key stakeholders including funders, publishers, professional societies, institutions, and researchers. We encourage all individuals and organizations who are interested in developing and promoting best practice in the assessment of scholarly research to sign DORA.

DORA’s governance procedures are openly available, and our current priorities are outlined in the 2018 Roadmap.

Objectives

Raise awareness
To call attention to new tools and processes in research assessment and the responsible use of metrics that align with core academic values and promote consistency and transparency in decision-making

Facilitate implementation
To aid development of new policies and practices for hiring, promotion, and funding decisions

Catalyze change
To spread research assessment reform broadly by working across scholarly disciplines and globally

Improve equity
To call for broader representation of researchers in the design of research assessment practices that directly address the structural inequalities in academia

Approaches

Community engagement
We publish blogs, organize community interviews, and give presentations on research assessment.

Resource development
We curate collections of good practices, create slide presentations to help individuals initiate local conversations about change, and publish commentaries to provide additional guidance for stakeholders.

Partnership
We work with other organizations that share our desire to reform research assessment. For example, we have partnered with the Royal Society of the United Kingdom to collect feedback on the Résumé for Researchers and co-sponsored a meeting on research assessment with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Advising
We advise academic institutions and funders seeking to review and revise their research assessment policies and practices.

Convening
We gather diverse stakeholders at conference sessions, workshops, and meetings to work towards systems change.

Good practices

I decided about 40 years ago that I wanted to publish only in journals at which practicing scientists did the editing and editorial decision-making and at which the overall goal was to serve…

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John Pringle, Stanford University

When Gary Struhl and I decided to work on planar polarity 20 years ago, we decided for a variety of reasons to avoid publishing in some of the journals that happen to have the highest impact…

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Peter Lawrence, Cambridge University

The high glamour journals, which sport the highest journal impact factors, are driven by incentives that run counter to the needs and interests of professional scientists. In their need for an uber…

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Jasper Rine, University of California

Member organizations

Visionary

HHMI - Howard Hughes Medical Institute

SNF

Sustainer

ASCB

Cancer Research UK

The Company of Biologists

EMBO

Hindawi

The Research Council of Norway

Wellcome

Luxembourg National Research Fund

Supporter

F1000Research

Iowa State University Library

The Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Steering committee

David Carr

David Carr

Wellcome

Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry, Chair

Imperial College London

Michael Hill

Michael Hill

Swiss National Science Foundation

Stuart King

Stuart King

eLife

Boyana Konforti

Boyana Konforti

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Catriona MacCallum

Catriona MacCallum

Hindawi

Erin McKiernan

Erin McKiernan

National Autonomous University of Mexico

Dan Morgan

Dan Morgan

PLOS

Claire Moulton

Claire Moulton

The Company of Biologists

Bernd Pulverer

Bernd Pulverer

EMBO

Fiona Reddington

Fiona Reddington

Cancer Research UK

Erika Shugart

Erika Shugart

American Society for Cell Biology

Advisory Board

Ginny Barbour

Ginny Barbour, Chair

Queensland University of Technology

Australia

José Pío Beltrán

José Pío Beltrán

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in València

Spain

Needhi Bhalla

Needhi Bhalla

University of California, Santa Cruz

United States

Leslie Chan

Leslie Chan

University of Toronto Scarborough

Canada

Christian Gonzalez-Billaut

Christian Gonzalez-Billaut

Universidad de Chile

Chile

Yukiko Gotoh

Yukiko Gotoh

The University of Tokyo

Japan

Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen

Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen

National Library of Finland

Finland

Rebecca Lawrence

Rebecca Lawrence

F1000

United Kingdom

Xiaoxuan Li

Xiaoxuan Li

Chinese Academy of Sciences

China

Satyajit Mayor

Satyajit Mayor

National Centre for Biological Science (TIFR)

India

Valerie Mizrahi

Valerie Mizrahi

University of Capetown

South Africa

Ahmed Ogunlaja

Ahmed Ogunlaja

Open Access Nigeria

Nigeria

Laura Rovelli 

El Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)

Argentina

Iara Vidal

Iara Vidal

Federal University of Rio De Janeiro

Brazil

Rhoda Wanyenze

Rhoda Wanyenze

Makerere University School of Public Health

Uganda

Staff

Anna Hatch

Anna Hatch

Program Director

Helen Sitar

Helen Sitar

Community Coordinator

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