Currently, the process of evaluating academic performance has become increasingly synonymous with rankings, resulting in constant rankings of researchers, journals, articles, universities, and academic departments. The focus is primarily on obtaining a position on these lists, regardless of the criteria used for ranking. Unfortunately, this trend is seriously damaging to the academic community, as it contradicts the critical culture that should prevail in academia.
The upcoming seminar aims to draw attention to the persistent popularity of rankings, despite attempts such as the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) to address methodological and conceptual mistakes in these rankings. The seminar will also explore the normalization of manipulation in these rankings and provide concrete examples of the harm they inflict on the academic community.
The Scholarly Communication Network is a recently established network that caters to the needs of early career researchers. The network’s primary objective is to provide a platform for these researchers to connect and collaborate, given the challenges they face in the current academic and economic climate. For further details on the network’s mission and activities, interested parties can visit their website at https://schcommnetwork.com/.