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Today, DORA is announcing an update to its policy for organizational signatories. What is the new policy? Beginning on January 1, 2025, organizations and institutions that sign DORA will need to submit a public statement at the time of signing to be approved. Previously, organizations were asked to post a public statement when they signed…

  Publishing requires constant innovation and renewal in order for it to remain relevant. eLife has disrupted the traditional model of scholarly publishing: since its inception, innovation and academic-led publishing have been at the core of eLife‘s policies and processes. Presently, their peer review model requires submissions to be preprinted prior to peer review, followed…

Each quarter, DORA holds a Discussion Group meeting for National and International Initiatives working to address responsible research assessment reform. This community of practice is a space for initiatives to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations, and collaborate on projects or topics of common interest. Meeting agendas are shaped by participants. If…

Adrian Barnett, Queensland University of Technology The winter months can get cold in Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland where the Titanic was designed, built and launched in the early 1900s. Not seriously cold of course, never sub-zero depths of cold that were the undoing of the Titanic on its maiden voyage, but a…

Judit Varga & Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner Research on Research Institute (RoRI); Centre for Science & Technology Studies, Leiden University. Contact: w.kaltenbrunner@cwts.leidenuniv.nl This blog post reports some preliminary findings from a project designed to investigate the evaluative use of narrative CVs. When funding organizations organize review panels to assess grant applications, reviewers need to agree on what…

19 representatives from 7 research funder organisations participated in the last quarterly Asia-Pacific Funder Discussion Group hosted by DORA. New DORA staff members, Liz Allen and Janet Catterall were introduced to the group. The position of DORA Program Manager is currently vacant. DORA updates to the group included the upcoming implementation guide and guidance document,…

The following post originally appeared on the Templeton World Charity Foundation blog. It is reposted here with their permission. Emerging policies to better recognize preprints and open scholarship Research funding organizations play an important role in setting the tone for what is valued in research assessment through the projects they fund and the outputs they…

Each quarter, DORA holds a Community of Practice (CoP) meeting for National and International Initiatives working to address responsible research assessment reform. This CoP is a space for initiatives to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations, and collaborate on projects or topics of common interest. Meeting agendas are shaped by participants. If…

DORA has hit a new milestone by reaching the 25,000 signature mark. Each of those thousands of signatures represents an individual or organization that supports the principles of the original San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, drafted in 2013. Most signatures are from individuals, with QQ percent from various organizations, including universities, departments and libraries…

Announcements Reformscape in Full Swing Since its release in January, Reformscape has been serving the research community in providing 230 documents encouraging openness & transparency. New documents and information continue to be added and are always publicly available. Upgrades have also been made to make the platform more user-friendly. You can now search for responsible…

The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) came into being to try to end the misuse of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) in the evaluation of research and researchers and has achieved considerable success in advancing reform of assessment practices. However, there are a number of other quantitative indicators derived from publishing activity which are used…

DORA seeks self-nominations for Steering Committee members based in Asia. DORA is a global initiative dedicated to the improvement of research assessment. Almost 25,000 individuals and organizations worldwide have signed DORA in the last decade, including research institutions, funders, and government agencies. The Steering Committee supports and shapes DORA’s mission and vision, as outlined in…

Click here to download this report. This report may also be found in DORA’s Resource Library. Background Research funding organizations are well positioned to be drivers of change towards more responsible research assessment practices. They are in a unique position to shape research culture, determining the allocation of resources, shaping research priorities, and influencing who…

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. If you are employed by a public or private research funder and interested in joining the…

In February 2022, DORA organized the online workshop series “Using Narrative CVs: Identifying shared objectives and monitoring effectiveness” in partnership with FORGEN CoP, Science Foundation Ireland, the Swiss National Science Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and the University of Bristol, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research. The aim of the workshop was to develop a…

Each quarter, DORA holds a Community of Practice (CoP) meeting for National and International Initiatives working to address responsible research assessment reform. This CoP is a space for initiatives to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations, and collaborate on projects or topics of common interest. Meeting agendas are shaped by participants. If…

Since Reformscape launched on January 30, 2024, we have been very grateful for the community response. This blog post will serve as an ongoing link round-to articles about Reformscape from sources other than DORA. This post will be updated every week that we spot new articles about Reformscape. January 30, 2024 to February 4, 2024…

Each year, DORA reflects on progress toward responsible research assessment. How is research valued in different communities and how might that have changed in 2023? What tools are the community creating to support policy development? What types of research assessment policies are being developed to reduce the influence of journal-based metrics and recognize a broad…

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. If you are employed by a public or private research funder and interested in joining the…

Washington DC, USA – The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is delighted to announce the launch of Reformscape – a new online resource enabling the global academic community to explore and share examples of how to make hiring, promotion and tenure fairer, more robust and more diverse. For years, the traditional way in…

Each quarter, DORA holds a Community of Practice (CoP) meeting for National and International Initiatives working to address responsible research assessment reform. This CoP is a space for initiatives to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations, and collaborate on projects or topics of common interest. Meeting agendas are shaped by participants. If…

This is part of a series of curated insights for Reformscape, a new tool from Project TARA. The Open University is an interesting example of how changes in assessment can contribute to a broader strategic goal. It also offers inspiration for how to create a participatory change process. Between 2012-2015, the Open University took action…

This is part of a series of curated insights for Reformscape, a new tool from Project TARA. Utrecht University (UU) and Utrecht University Medical Centre (UMC) have been steadily developing policies and practices aimed to reward a variety of academic activities in assessments. Their most recent tool that captured our attention is a set of…

Announcements Farewells, Welcomes, and Exciting News Bidding farewell to Chair Stephen CurrySince October 2017, Stephen Curry has been Chair of DORA, acting as an advocate for equitable and responsible research assessment. Read his farewell address here. Welcoming the new Co-Chairs and Vice-Chair As of November 2023, Ginny Barbour of Queensland University of Technology, and Kelly Cobey…

As of November, 2023, DORA has two new Co-Chairs, Ginny Barbour and Kelly Cobey, as well as a new Vice Chair, Rebecca Lawrence. We are so excited to welcome all three of them to the DORA team and look forward to working together to promote responsible research assessment. See each of their welcoming remarks below:…