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.…

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…

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.

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

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…

This work-in-progress paper outlines actions taken to implement the University Research Assessment Project led by the Center for Interuniversity Development (CINDA). CINDA is a specialist Latin American and European network that includes universities from over 15 countries. CINDA members manage inter-university collaborations, generate and disseminate knowledge, and contribute to the development of higher education and university management…

Preprints are an essential tool for accelerating scientific discovery as they provide early and free access to new findings. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of preprints have surged on a worldwide level and its availability allows discussion and assessment to be carried over to a wider community. However public participation is very low and…

The Federation released a report in 2017 to support the ongoing conversation in Canada about the assessment of research impact in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS).

The Open Science movement has the potential to create opportunities to also reform scholarly assessment practices to acknowledge and reward publication in Open Access journals, data sharing, and a broader range of research outputs. The European University Association (EUA) conducted a survey from October 2020 to January 2021 of the level of development of Open…

Ghent University published a vision statement for evaluating research based on eight principles agreed on by the University’s Board of Governors.

A working group set up by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies produced guidelines to improve how researchers are assessed in Finland. The report provides a set of general principles (transparency, integrity, fairness, competence, and diversity) that apply throughout 13 recommended good practices to improve four aspects of researcher evaluation.

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…

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.

In keeping with HHMI’s commitment to basic scientific discovery, the Institute employs outstanding researchers for renewable seven-year terms as HHMI Investigators.

The Humane Metrics Initiative (HuMetricsHSS) works to create and support values-enacted frameworks for understanding and evaluating all aspects of scholarly life with a focus on humanities and social sciences . Towards its goal of supporting stakeholders as they work to reform scholarly evaluation, HuMetricsHSS created a Workshop Kit to aid those who would like to…

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,…

In their working paper, authors Kimberlee Gai Weatherall and Rebecca Giblin review the use of metrics in university and research policy with a focus on Australia. The metrics reviewed include grant income, journal bibliometrics and citations by authors and courts. This review aims to create awareness among legal scholars “of the full range of ways…

The More Than Our Rank scheme and SCOPE Framework for Research Evaluation, launched by the International Network of Research Management Societies Research Evaluation Group (INORMS REG), are initiatives that both have a focus on equity in academia and research. More Than Our Rank aims to address the limitations of global university rankings and encourage academic…

The IDRC in Canada developed a tool called Research Quality Plus (RQ+) to assess applied and translational research.

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…

The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) published a statement of recommendations concerning the appropriate means of assessment of varied research outputs. In the statement, the term “corpus” refers to the body of language documentation scholarship that is deposited in a language archive. The statement notes that “unlike traditional publications, documentation is not ordinarily peer-reviewed. Thus,…