Resource Library

Understanding the hiring dynamics of the academic job market is an important step for institutions wishing to enhance the transparency of their hiring process and attract talent. To establish the profile and perceptions of academic job seekers, the authors collected survey data from 317 early-career researchers who were in the process of applying for academic…

In support of the Dutch Recognition and Rewards Programme, Leiden University published a position paper “Academia in Motion: Recognition & Rewards at Leiden University” in 2021. In 2020, Leiden University’s Executive Board established a Recognition & Rewards steering committee made up of staff from a variety of positions and roles. The goals of the Recognition…

To improve research assessment practices in academic institutions, it is critical to understand the institutional metrics used to assess research quality for promotion. This article examines traditional and non-traditional criteria used to assess biomedical scientists for promotion and tenure in 92 randomly selected international institutions. The study found that the evaluation of scientists emphasizes traditional…

In this article, Jonathan Grant outlines nine cases that highlight examples of new academic incentives at multiple levels (e.g., system, institution, and individual level). These include: System-Level Examples like the United Kingdom Research Excellence Framework (REF), which reviews the quality of research conducted at universities in the United Kingdom, including societal impact and research environment.…

Three national academies issued a statement on good practice in the evaluation of researchers and research programs in October of 2017. The statement recognized the need for efficient, fair, and robust researcher evaluation, especially as the size of the research community continues to increase.

The ARRC team at the University of Cambridge is running a controlled trial to investigate the effects of using narrative CVs in postdoc recruitment. Narrative CVs aim to avoid placing a narrow emphasis on lists of achievements such as authored publications, awarded grants, etc. Using a narrative CV might allow researchers to highlight their wider…

A survey was conducted by Noémie Aubert Bonn and Wim Pinxten to understand how Flemish researchers work and how they would rate the relevance of specific research assessment indicators in career advancement and advancing science. Survey results suggested that current indicators used to assess career advancement (e.g., indicators of prestige like high journal impact factor…

The idea for the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment began at the 2012 ASCB Annual Meeting. As one of the initial DORA signatories, the ASCB does not promote its publications by the Journal Impact Factor.

Applicants understand how funding decisions are made, because the Agency openly shares a general summary of its decision-making process on their website written in English and French.

ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology) tracks preprint policies and practices at journals, funders, and universities.

Six principles for hiring, promotion, and tenure were developed at a one-day workshop in Washington DC in January 2017 to address incentives and rewards in research assessment.

The NHMRC guide for peer review instructs assessors not to rely on the Journal Impact Factor when making judgments.

This is part of DORA’s toolkit of resources to support academic institutions that are improving their policies and practices. Find the other resources in the toolkit here.   Balanced, broad, responsible: A practical guide for research evaluators is a short, informative video that is accompanied by a one-page brief. The video and document are meant…

This document from UNESCO is a roadmap for higher education, prepared for the “3rd World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022).” Within the roadmap are “signposts for co-creating more open, inclusive, equitable and collaborative higher education systems that democratize access and knowledge.” Recognizing the evolution of and advancements in higher education, UNESCO has outlined 5 sections discussing…

CRUK recognizes value from all outputs of research, including publications. CRUK has modified its grant application process to ask candidates to describe the significance and impact of 3-5 key research achievements, which can include preprints, training delivered, contribution to consortia, patents, and sharing of key datasets, software, novel assays and reagents, and research publications.

The Center for Open Science has a collection of open science policies at universities and examples of job announcements that mention open science. The Open Science Framework (OSF) also has a project that archives job offers that require or suggest an open science statement from applicants.

CIRAD developed the ImpresS method to assess the environmental and societal impact its research.

Reviewers play a critical role in upholding research integrity within the expert review and funding process at the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). The expert review encompasses a diverse group ranging from researchers, clinicians, patients, survivors, caregivers, decision-makers, and knowledge users, collectively offering a multifaceted evaluation of research grant applications. In alignment with DORA, CCS advocates…

The badges for our signatories show support for DORA, raise awareness about research assessment, and serve as a conversation starter with individuals or organizations that have not heard about DORA yet.

We know that slide presentations are one of the primary means of academic communication. To help you talk about research assessment, we created three presentations that are available for download.

This paper reviewed existing literature and international best practices and established consensus by Delphi survey on 10 key measures for assessing research quality and impact that align with DORA values. These measures were chosen from a pool of 50 compiled measures that emphasize diverse and holistic evaluations of research performance beyond traditional metrics like journal…

The application process for EMBO Long-Term Fellowships emphasizes the most important outcomes and impact of the applicant’s work rather than where it is published and specifically states that journal impact factors should not be provided.

The fundamental activity of the ERC is to provide attractive, long-term funding to support Principal Investigators and their research teams to pursue ground-breaking, high-gain/high-risk research. The ERC puts particular emphasis on the frontiers of science and scholarship. In particular, it encourages proposals of a multi- or interdisciplinary nature which cross the boundaries between different fields…

The 2018 European University Association (EUA) roadmap was approved by the EUA Council at its meeting on 4 April 2018, in Zurich (Switzerland). This roadmap addresses the assessment of research outcomes, researchers and research units and organizations (laboratories, research centers and universities). The main objective of the roadmap is to raise awareness and support European…

Evaluation of Research Careers fully Acknowledging Open Science Practices, a report released by the European Commission in 2017, recognizes the emerging Open Science movement creates an opportunity to develop an evaluation system for hiring and promotion that is focused on the equal treatment of applicants.