Guest posts

For the past eight years the DORA has advocated that research institutions reevaluate their research assessment practices for recruitment, promotion, and funding decisions. To inform the evaluation of scientific productivity, DORA encourages the use of explicit criteria beyond popular bibliometrics like the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) or H-index. These criteria include a range of output measures, such as the generation of new software and datasets, research impact on a field, transparency, training early-career researchers, and influence on policy.

The Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC) is a regional space for debate on the policies and practices of the evaluation of scientific work as well as the long-term implications of evaluation processes. Through FOLEC, the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) seeks to change the system by recognizing and rewarding the open, common and public domain of knowledge and its connection with democratizing and sustainable models of science that are committed to solving societal problems.

The Wellcome Trust has published draft guidance for the research organisations we fund on implementation of the core principles of DORA.  It aims to help organisations develop and adopt meaningful changes to research assessment practices that instil the buy-in and trust of their staff, and to encourage them to be proactive in reporting their progress and sharing their learning.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is piloting a narrative CV format in the Veni scheme, its major funding instrument for early career researchers. The format advances showcasing diverse types of talent and encourages assessment of quality rather than quantity.

All authors make unique contributions to a piece of work that cannot be articulated by looking at an author list. For the increasingly rare single-author publication, it is clear who contributed what to the article. However, multi-author publications are common and, in this case, it is not so clear who did what.