Resource Library

A collection of materials to facilitate the development of responsible research and researcher assessment policies and practices.

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Journal articles
For: FundersProfessional societiesResearch institutes
2020
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…
Good practices
For: Funders
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.
Good practicesPolicies and guidance
For: Funders
2018
The NHMRC guide for peer review instructs assessors not to rely on the Journal Impact Factor when making judgments.
Advocacy resourcesTools
DORA-produced
For: Funders
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…
Advocacy resourcesGood practicesPolicies and guidance
For: FundersProfessional societiesResearch institutes
2022
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…
Good practices
For: Funders
2018
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.
Good practicesTools
For: FundersResearch institutes
2021
CIRAD developed the ImpresS method to assess the environmental and societal impact its research.
Good practices
For: Funders
2014
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.
Good practices
For: Funders
2022
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…
Good practicesPosition papers
For: Funders
2017
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.
Advocacy resources
For: FundersJournals and publishersProfessional societies
2023
This internal report for the University of Waikato investigates researchers’ perspectives on metrics and their influence on research impact, highlighting a multifaceted view of the role these metrics play in the academic landscape. While researchers generally acknowledged the usefulness of metrics, they were concerned about the over-reliance on these metrics, which can lead to a…
Good practices
For: Funders
2022
Strengthening equity in international research partnerships can help address the current power imbalances that characterize the global research ecosystem and improve the ethical integrity of research agendas and knowledge production. This document was jointly created by the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) and ESSENCE on Health Research to provide practical advice and actionable steps…
Advocacy resources
For: FundersProfessional societiesResearch institutes
2021
The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) studies bibliometric and scientometric tools to support research assessment reform and strategic decision making for developing science policy. In March 2021, the CWTS published an infographic on “problems with the H-index and reasons for integrating other contributions into evaluations”. This infographic gives different examples of how the…
Good practices
For: Funders
The Health Research Board (HRB) has taken several actions since 2016 to implement DORA’s principles in its grant review process.
Initiatives
For: FundersResearch institutes
2019
The Helsinki Initiative has three tenets to recognize multilingualism in scholarly work. This includes the promotion of language diversity in research assessment, evaluation, and funding systems.
ideas for ncv optimization
Tools
DORA-produced
For: FundersResearch institutes
2024
This one-page tip sheet is a part of the short report Using Narrative CVs: Identifying shared objectives and monitoring effectiveness. 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,…
Position papers
DORA-produced
For: Funders
This is a short report summarizing the key takeaways from a workshop co-organized by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the University of Bristol, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, and the MoreBrains Cooperative. The aim of the online workshop was to develop actions to improve the processes that take place before research is…
Good practicesPosition papersTools
For: FundersResearch institutes
2016
The IDRC in Canada developed a tool called Research Quality Plus (RQ+) to assess applied and translational research.
Position papersTools
For: FundersResearch institutes
2021
This is a report that describes mechanisms and approaches to improve and incentivize the recording, the evaluation, and the recognition of contributions to Open Scholarship practice. It presents a digital resource called the Openness Profile (OP) and describes how the OP can help address existing gaps in the assessment of open science. Developed by consultants…
Initiatives
For: FundersResearch institutes
Make Data Count is a global, community-led initiative focused on the development of open, responsibly created research data assessment metrics. Driven by partners at California Digital Library, Crossref, DataCite, DataONE, ScholCommLab, University of Ottawa, and ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, their goals are to produce evidence based studies on researcher behavior in citing…
Position papers
For: FundersResearch institutes
2021
This is the final report of EOSC Co-Creation projects: “European overview of career merit systems” and “Vision for research data in research careers.” It builds on extensive document overview, survey, case-studies and co-creation processes to argue for FAIReR academic assessments that are rooted in the FAIR guidelines for data management, as well as policies for…
Good practices
For: FundersJournals and publishersResearch institutes
2023
The Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) introduced a standardized narrative-style CV format in 2021 as a requirement for applicants to all of FNR’s funding schemes. This new format was introduced to streamline and simplify the evaluation process, broaden the types of contributions considered during review, and to align with DORA’s principles that research should be…
Policies and guidance
For: FundersResearch institutes
2021
In 2021, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) implemented a structured narrative CV template as a requirement for applicants to all funding schemes granted by the organization. The motivation to implement narrative CVs in the agency was based on the pursuit of two main goals: Shifting towards responsible research assessment practices Streamlining and simplifying the…
Good practicesPolicies and guidance
For: Funders
The ORFG released guidance for funders called, Incentivizing the sharing of research outputs through research assessment: a funder implementation blueprint.
Tools
For: FundersProfessional societies
2024
The Peer Exchange Platform for Narrative-style CVs (PEP-CV) is a free and open resource for everyone in research and innovation to add to existing guidance on narrative CVs. As a not-for-profit initiative, the PEP-CV platform is a collaborative effort among funders, institutions, and researchers that fosters a culture of collaboration, mutual learning, and expands national…