This is part of DORA’s toolkit of resources to support academic institutions that are improving their policies and practices. Find other resources in the toolkit here.
“Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at RPOs: Informational Briefs from the Practical Guide” is a set of three tailored resources designed to support diverse audiences connected to Research Performing Organizations (RPOs) as they engage with responsible research assessment (RRA) reform.
These briefs complement the full Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations, offering concise, audience-specific insights and action points to help catalyze change across different roles and levels of responsibility.
The three briefs are:
- Informational Brief on the Landscape:
Offers a high-level overview of RRA, its relevance, and its connection to broader movements such as open science and research integrity. Designed to spark understanding and dialogue among researchers, research managers, funders, and policymakers. - Informational Brief for Leadership:
Provides strategic insights for senior leaders on the institutional benefits of RRA and what it means in practice. - Informational Brief for RRA Task Forces:
Offers practical guidance for working groups and task forces charged with developing and implementing RRA strategies. Includes suggested actions across nine key activities and highlights the importance of cross-functional collaboration and sustained cultural change.
Each brief is designed to be flexible and adaptable to different organizational contexts, disciplinary cultures, and strategic priorities. Together, they aim to foster shared understanding and coordinated action toward more inclusive, transparent, and values-aligned research assessment practices.
We have uploaded to Zenodo three separate files, each corresponding to a specific audience, to support targeted use and dissemination.
We have also produced Quick-Reference Sheets from the Practical Guide you may find at https://sfdora.org/resource/practical-guide-for-rpos-quick-reference-sheets/.
We thank Stephanie Warner (University of Calgary) for her thoughtful review of the Quick-Reference Sheets and Informational Briefs, which helped strengthen the clarity of these resources. Any errors and omissions remain our own.
The Practical Guide and these informational briefs are part of Project TARA and, alongside Reformscape, the Building Blocks for Impact, and the Debiasing Committee Composition, forms a suite of tools designed to help organizations who are seeking to reform research assessment practices. Project TARA is supported by Arcadia, a family charitable foundation that helps people to record cultural heritage, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge, whom we thank. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.2 billion to organizations around the world.
These materials are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial CC BY-NC. They may be freely used, copied, and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the source is acknowledged.
Cite as: DORA San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment. (2025). Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at RPOs: Informational Briefs from the Practical Guide. DORA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16763794