Announcements
New SPACE workshop kit
DORA is proud to present a new set of resources for those seeking to share the SPACE rubric with their communities. The SPACE rubric is a tool to help institutions at any stage of academic assessment reform gauge their ability to support research assessment reform and set them up for success. In April 2022, DORA co-hosted workshops with university associations, CESAER and CINDA, on how to use the SPACE rubric. Building off of these workshops, we have created a workshop kit that you can use to host your own SPACE workshop (available in English and Spanish). Read about the kit here.
DORA Survey of Research Assessment Practices in U.S. Institutions
Are you currently employed as a senior administrator, researcher, or librarian at a research-performing organization in the United States? Do you have experience with U.S. research assessment practices within your organization? If so, DORA invites you to complete our survey about faculty (assistant, associate, or full professor) hiring, promoting, and tenure practices within your institute. The survey is part of Tools to Advance Research Assessment (Project TARA), and it aims to gain a broad understanding of the current state-of-the-art in the context of faculty career advancement in U.S. organizations, as well as institutional attitudes and approaches to research assessment reform. Learn more about Project TARA and the survey, which are supported by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. (Update: The survey is now closed.)
News
Updates on DORA’s strategic planning process
Many thanks to everyone who completed the survey about DORA’s activities over the past three years and for sharing your ideas about how we might support research assessment reform moving forward. Your responses are being used to inform the development of future strategic goals and priorities for DORA. Stay tuned for updates on our strategic planning process and DORA’s 10th anniversary.
The SPACE rubric is now available in Spanish
The SPACE rubric, the rubric worksheet, and the DORA resource library rubric overview are now also available in Spanish. We are grateful to the volunteers from CINDA and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) who produced and checked the translations: Soledad Aravena, Marta Aymerich Martínez, Ciro Llueca, Pastora Martínez-Samper, Josmel Pacheco-Mendoza, Alejandra Tejada-Gómez, and Julie Wilson. The translations can be found here.
Case study webinar recap
Three new case studies were added to the Reimagining Academic Career Assessment case study repository in 2021. In December 2021, DORA held a webinar on these case studies that explored their strategies for implementing research assessment reform, their overarching reasons for change, and the day-to-day challenges of implementing reform. Read about key insights from the discussion here.
Considering common principles for the use of narrative CVs in grant evaluation
At the December 2021 funder discussion meeting, participants examined the goals of using narrative CVs for grant evaluation. Key questions included what a shared definition of a narrative CV might look like, what are the objectives for its use in grant evaluation, and what is the value of a shared approach to monitor its effectiveness. Read the discussion highlights here.
Updates from the DORA Community Engagement Grant Awardees
- The Faculty of Psychology (UNLP, Argentina) has opened registration for a day-long virtual event on open science and research assessment aimed at students, researchers, and management teams. “Psicología (con)Ciencia Abierta” will take place on September 2 from 10 to 18h (GMT-3). Register to attend here.
- Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee and Moumita Koley held a workshop on Research Assessment Practices in Indian Funding Agencies (here) and have published an article on the necessity of reassessing the research assessment practices in India.The article is based on the initial discussions carried out during their Community Engagement project and discusses the necessity of reassessing research assessment practices in India.
- Chukwuemeka Jude Diji, Chinecherem Umezuruike, and Ademola Olaniyan held a seminar on Research Assessment in Academics and Research Institutions: An Introduction to DORA.
- María Ángela Petrizzo Paez, Annel Mejías Guiza, and Ximena González Broquen presented their preliminary work at the CEISAL 2022 conference (check out their presentation here), and also participated in the FOLEC roundtable at the IX CLACSO Conference in Mexico City to discuss their work.
- The Projeto Métricas/Fapesp team (Brazil) carried out a survey of individual DORA signatories, and the information was used to hold a workshop with 15 specialists, all signatories of DORA. The current state of evaluation in Brazil was discussed, as well as obstacles and challenges using the SPACE rubric. A second workshop will be held in August.
Publish Your Reviews
DORA is pleased to support Publish Your Reviews, a new ASAPbio initiative encouraging reviewers to post their comments alongside the preprint versions of articles. Publish Your Reviews is supported by over 30 publishers, funders, and other scholarly communication stakeholder organizations, as well as dozens of individual researchers.
Publishing peer reviews alongside preprints provides readers with additional context on preprints, pointing out strengths, weaknesses, and open questions. It also enables reuse of reviews, thereby reducing the burden on editors and reviewers. In addition, it brings scientific discussions into the public domain, catalyzing a culture of open scholarly debate. Finally, publishing peer reviews surfaces the work of reviewers to a broader audience, promoting greater recognition for this important work. Learn more and sign the pledge here.