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Introduction to Responsible Research Assessment Course: Lesson 4 Glossary and Reading List


Return to the course homepage. This resource is part of the supporting materials in the “Materials” tab on the course homepage, where you can find other resources like How to Navigate the Course and the Teaching Support Guide.

Glossary

  • Traditional CV: An academic curriculum vitae that typically focuses primarily on listing positions, publications, grants, and honors, and often emphasizes quantity and prestige through a linear summary of achievements without providing context on specific contributions or broader impact of their research, teaching, and service. 
  • Bias-Mitigating Panel: A review panel that actively employs strategies to reduce cognitive and systems biases in evaluation decisions, often by diversifying committee composition, providing bias training, and using structured assessment approaches.

Suggested reading list

Learn more about how RRA has been applied by different types of organizations in the academic system

  • Dutch Research Council (NWO) Inclusive assessment videos for reviewers and committee members involved in the evaluation process.
    • These are two videos created by the NWO for reviewers and committee members involved in the evaluation process. They provide information about implicit bias and give practical suggestions to optimize the evaluation process.
    • Link: https://www.nwo.nl/en/inclusive-assessment 
  • Chapter 3 of “A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations” (Allen, Barbour, Cobey, Faulkes, Hazlett, Lawrence, Lima, Massah, & Schmidt, 2025)
    • Chapter 3, “Key moments in research and researcher assessment”, outlines areas where RRA can occur, like recruitment, hiring, promotion, institutional awards, internal grants, evaluation of internal research units, and corporate communications.
    • Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15000683 
  • Reformscape
  • “Reimagining academic assessment: stories of innovation and change”
    • This collection of detailed case studies outlines examples of organizational change from various universities and national consortia globally.
    • Link: https://sfdora.org/dora-case-studies/ 

Learn more about different approaches and strategies to implement RRA

  • “Rethinking Research Assessment: Unintended Cognitive and Systems Biases” (Hatch & Schmidt, 2020)
  • “Debiasing Committee Composition and Deliberative Processes” (Schmidt, 2022)
  • “Building Blocks for Impact” (Schmidt, R., 2022)
  • Tipsheet from “Using Narrative CVs: Identifying shared objectives and monitoring effectiveness” (Fritch, R. et al., 2024)
    • This tipsheet provides guidance for optimizing, evaluating, and iterating on the use of narrative CVs for funding decisions. It can also be applicable in the setting of research performing organizations.
    • Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10845837