About DORA

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 (PDF) are openly available, and our current priorities are outlined in the 2023 three-year Strategic Plan (PDF).

Mission

DORA’s mission is to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines.

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.

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.

Timeline

2024
Jan. 2024
2023
Oct. 2023
Sep. 2023
May. 2023

DORA celebrates its 10th anniversary

Events included two plenary sessions, a retrospective, and a decentralized global program of over 20 locally-organized events.

More >

Mar. 2023
Feb. 2023
2022
Oct. 2022
Oct. 2022
Jul. 2022
Apr. 2022
Feb. 2022
Jan. 2022
Jan. 2022
Jan. 2022
2021
Sep. 2021
Sep. 2021
Aug. 2021
Jul. 2021
Jun. 2021
Jan. 2021
2020
Dec. 2020
Nov. 2020
Oct. 2020
Aug. 2020
May. 2020
Mar. 2020
2019
Oct. 2019
2018
Jun. 2018
Feb. 2018
2013
May. 2013
2012
Dec. 2012