Blog

DORA will develop a new resource, “A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment for Scholarly Communication.” This Guide builds on DORA’s previous Practical Guides for research performing and funding organizations, and represents our next step in supporting the implementation of responsible research assessment across the research ecosystem. Focusing on scholarly communication, the Guide will...

This post summarizes the June 2026 DORA Funder Groups Strategic Planning Workshops, which gathered global input to shape DORA’s upcoming 2027–2030 Strategic Plan. It outlines the funding community's 15-year vision for Responsible Research Assessment (RRA), emphasizing a shift toward values-based evaluation, qualitative indicators like narrative CVs, and improved system efficiency. On June 18, 2026, the...

On June 16, 2026, the DORA Initiatives Community of Practice hosted a strategic planning workshop where members collaborated to envision the next 15 years of responsible research assessment (RRA). Participants addressed pressing challenges like "reform fatigue" and outlined system-level, institutional, and infrastructure-building strategies needed to transition toward trust-based evaluation models. The collaborative insights gathered during...

This blog post is co-published by DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment), FORCE11, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), and the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA). “To Go Far, Go Together.” This guiding theme of the FORCE 2026 conference emphasizes the critical importance of partnership and cooperation across disciplines, technologies, and...

To celebrate its 13th anniversary, DORA is excited to introduce its new resource: A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Funding Organizations. Co-developed with the Global Research Council Responsible Research Assessment Working Group (GRC RRA WG) and Science Europe, this Guide is designed as a flexible “one-stop-shop” to help public and private funding...

Guest post by Noel Kikuchi, Asa Nakano, and Yuko Shinzawa Responsible research assessment in Japan is gaining momentum as universities, policymakers, and research communities move beyond traditional metrics such as publication counts and citation indicators. From institutional innovations such as Kyoto University’s COMON framework to collaborative initiatives translating international guidance into Japanese practice, this guest...

Guest post by Pauline Ronnet, EMBO Policy Assistant, and Sandra Bendiscioli, EMBO Senior Policy Officer and DORA Steering Committee Member Drawing on a 2026 community workshop, Pauline and Sandra explore how research excellence can be assessed in a changing scientific landscape, highlighting key challenges such as recognizing diverse research outputs, valuing broader contributions to research...

Keynote by Leslie Chan, Department of Global Development Studies, Director of the Knowledge Equity Lab, University of Toronto. DORA Steering Committee, Past Board Member of DOAJ and IOI. Leslie Chan’s keynote below, delivered at the 14th Global Research Council (GRC) Annual Meeting on May 20, 2026, in Bangkok, Thailand, underscored a critical shift in how...

Guest post by Dr Fang Xu, Deputy Director of Research Evaluation Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and DORA Steering Committee Member In the global shift toward responsible research assessment, China’s decision to phase out its influential CAS Journal Classification system represents an important moment in moving beyond journal-based metrics. In this guest...

Guest post by Natalia Gras and Judith Sutz In this blog post, Natalia Gras and Judith Sutz examine the complex journey to reform research evaluation in Uruguay, tracing how a metric‑driven system has shaped academic life and how collective efforts are now opening possibilities for change. Drawing on extensive research, national consultation, and policy engagement,...

Guest post by Caitlin Schleicher, ORCA, Director of Community & Partnerships The Modernizing Academic Appointment & Advancement (MA3) Challenge has revealed a clear and growing appetite to rethink how academia in the United States rewards research, teaching, and service to better align with institutional values. With the announcement of the inaugural MA3 Challenge awardees, the...

The DORA team is delighted to invite you to celebrate DORA’s 13th anniversary with the launch of A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Funding Organizations, a new resource designed to support funders in strengthening research quality, equity, and impact. Co‑hosted with our partners at the Global Research Council and Science Europe,...

This guest blog is republished with permission from the LSE Impact Blog, first published in March 2026 here. University rankings have become a key measure of success for India, even at the highest political levels. Yet, as in other countries ranking regimes have created distortions in research practices. Exploring the data behind India’s “ranking mania”...

As the global conversation around responsible research assessment continues to evolve, so does DORA: 2026 is the last year of our current strategic plan! So, we begin developing DORA’s next Strategic Plan for 2027-2030, which will set the direction for our work over the coming years. Central to this process is listening carefully to the...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and the other is for organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (AAE). These groups provide a space for funders to learn from each other, share new policies and practices, and...

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...

Following our global call for new Steering Committee members in October 2025, DORA is delighted to announce the appointment of eight new at‑large members and three new Supporting Organization representatives to the Steering Committee. The response to our global call for at-large members was extraordinary: 213 self‑nominations, from over 70 countries, spanning all regions and...

Blog cross-posted with ALLEA and FORCE11. Across the global research system, growing recognition of the limitations and unintended consequences of narrow, metrics-driven assessment practices has catalysed momentum for reform. Concerns about research quality, equity, and the sustainability of research careers have grown alongside progress in research infrastructures and open science practices, evolving publishing models, and...

DORA is delighted to announce the launch of its Introduction to Responsible Research Assessment Course. This online, self-paced course provides an approachable, entry-level curriculum for anyone at any career stage and in a variety of roles to learn about responsible research assessment (RRA). The course is free for individuals to take but it requires registration,...

Guest post by Matías Alcantara, from CLACSO-FOLEC. On December 11, 2025, the Bogotá Manifesto: Towards Open, Democratic, and Socially Relevant Science in Latin America and the Caribbean was publicly launched in a virtual event organized by CLACSO. This collective document marks a milestone for the region in advancing the transformation of knowledge production systems and...

DORA is thrilled to announce an important stride in advancing Responsible Research Assessment (RRA) in Brazil, with potential benefits to the Lusophone world. On December 10, 2025, following months of intense collaboration with the University of São Paulo (USP) and Projeto Métricas, we officially launched the Portuguese translation of the Practical Guide for Implementing Responsible...

On December 2, 2025, as a side event of the CeRRA conference in Copenhagen, DORA hosted a full-day co-creation workshop at Aalborg University. The goal: to refine the Practical Guide for Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Funding Organizations (RFO Guide), being developed together with the Global Research Council RRA Working Group (GRC RRA WG ) and Science...

We are delighted to share the insights and progress discussed during our online event, “Innovations in Responsible Research Assessment in the United States”, held on November 20, 2025. The session aimed to highlight exemplars of progress toward responsible research assessment (RRA) in the U.S. and provide information about exciting funding opportunities to support institutional reform...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and the other is for organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (AAE). These groups provide a space for funders to learn from each other, share new policies and practices, and...

Cross-published with CoARA. With an aim to strengthen a global culture of responsible research assessment and drive impact through aligned principles, DORA is pleased to announce a joint statement released with the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). The official joint statement is the result of years of collaborative efforts between the two initiatives and...