More Carrot, Less Stick: How to Make Research Assessments Fairer
Research-assessment exercises are often misused to judge researchers or cut their funding - changes to the United Kingdom's scheme are a promising start.
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Beyond the Doughnut - Five Ways to Use Altmetrics for Academic Success
Beyond the Doughnut - Five Ways to Use Altmetrics for Academic Success
A decade on since their inception, Andy Tattersall considers how academics can make use of altmetrics in ways that go beyond counts and metrics.
Crucial! New! Essential! - The Rise of Hype in Research and Impact Assessment
Crucial! New! Essential! - The Rise of Hype in Research and Impact Assessment
Hyberbolic adjectives have been on the rise in academic writing. A study explores how this persuasive language is deployed across different fields of research
Horizon Europe Missions Gear Up for Their First Evaluation
Horizon Europe Missions Gear Up for Their First Evaluation
The targeted research Missions set up under Horizon Europe are turning three years old this year, and their ambitious logic is facing its first test in an upcoming review at the midpoint of the EU's €95.9 billion research programme.
DORA at 10: Looking Back at the History and Forward to the Future of Research Assessment
DORA at 10: Looking Back at the History and Forward to the Future of Research Assessment
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated.
German Universities Still Wary of EU Push to Reform Research Assessment
German Universities Still Wary of EU Push to Reform Research Assessment
The European Commission is making a big push to reform research assessment, but Germany's university leaders are not convinced the call for change from above is the right way to deliver it.
Funders Support Use of Reviewed Preprints in Research Assessment
Funders and other research organisations are embracing reviewed preprints as an alternative way to assess researchers, and call on others to do the same.
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
More funders should consider using randomization to choose grant recipients when decisions are too close to call.
Stress-Inducing and Anxiety-Ridden: A Practice-Based Approach to the Construction of Status-Bestowing Evaluations in Research Funding
Stress-Inducing and Anxiety-Ridden: A Practice-Based Approach to the Construction of Status-Bestowing Evaluations in Research Funding
More than resource allocations, evaluations of funding applications have become central instances for status bestowal in academia. Much attention in past literature has been devoted to grasping the status consequences of prominent funding evaluations.
Agreement Reached on Research Assessment Reforms
The document, which was facilitated by the European Commission, establishes new benchmarks regarding how research assessments should be performed.
Research Performance and Scholarly Communication Profile of Competitive Research Funding: the Case of Academy of Finland - Scientometrics
Research Performance and Scholarly Communication Profile of Competitive Research Funding: the Case of Academy of Finland - Scientometrics
The Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland's major public research funding agency, uses a Web of Science (WoS) based bibliometric indicator to assess the performance of research it has funded. CRIS-based publication data can support multidimensional assessments of research performance and scholarly communication profiles, potentially also in other countries and institutions.
EU Science Ministers Agree on Reform
EU science ministers signed off an agreement backing research assessment reform in Europe, alongside conclusions on open science, international cooperation and Horizon Europe missions.
Swiss Funder Unveils New CV Format to Make Grant Evaluation Fairer
Swiss Funder Unveils New CV Format to Make Grant Evaluation Fairer
The Swiss National Science Foundation's 'narrative' template seeks evidence of applicants' wider contributions to science.
Council to Adopt Position on Reforming Research Assessment, but Stresses One Size Should Not Be Made to Fit All
Council to Adopt Position on Reforming Research Assessment, but Stresses One Size Should Not Be Made to Fit All
Member states are set to adopt a position backing research assessment reform in Europe - but they'll stress that any reforms must take into account the diversity of research systems in the EU, according to a draft document seen by Science|Business. Research ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Friday to sign off Council conclusions for research assessment reform in Europe, alongside conclusions on open science, international cooperation and Horizon Europe missions.
To Boost South Korea's Basic Science, Look to Values, Not Just Budgets
To Boost South Korea's Basic Science, Look to Values, Not Just Budgets
The country has been increasing research funding for decades, but its rigid, time-bound approach to research assessment is stifling basic science.
Designing Grant-Review Panels for Better Funding Decisions: Lessons from an Empirically Calibrated Simulation Model
Designing Grant-Review Panels for Better Funding Decisions: Lessons from an Empirically Calibrated Simulation Model
This article explores how factors relating to grades and grading affect the correctness of choices that grant-review panels make among submitted proposals. It seeks to identify interventions in panel design that may be expected to increase the correctness of choices.
How Do We Make Research Assessment More Responsible?
A report on the SSP Publisher-Funder Task Force's meeting of senior researchers, university administrators, funders, publishers, and representatives from other organizations on the topic of Responsible Research Assessment for the 21st Century.
France Helps Brussels Move Ahead with 'disruptive' Plan for Research Assessment
France Helps Brussels Move Ahead with 'disruptive' Plan for Research Assessment
France is now working with the European Commission and science and university associations to push for a new system of evaluating research in Europe, launching the Paris Call on research assessment.
A Pathway Towards Multidimensional Academic Careers
A Pathway Towards Multidimensional Academic Careers
LERU published a position paper “A Pathway towards Multidimensional Academic” to provide a LERU framework for assessing researchers careers. The report elaborates on three perspectives that form the basis of the framework for the assessment of research.
EU to Go Ahead with Reform of Its Research Assessment Process in the Face of Scepticism
EU to Go Ahead with Reform of Its Research Assessment Process in the Face of Scepticism
A number of national research organisations have been taken aback by the urgency of a request by the European Commission to appoint representatives to negotiate a new research assessment system in Europe.
Stop Describing Academic Teaching As a 'load'
Universities should reward more than research outputs.
The Impact of Geographical Bias when Judging Scientific Studies
The Impact of Geographical Bias when Judging Scientific Studies
The findings of this study indicate that geographical biases affect public perception of research and influence the results of grant competitions.
Research Evaluation Needs to Change with the Times
The focus on a narrow set of metrics leads to a lack of diversity in the types of leader and institution that win funding.
Key Role in Evaluation Procedure: the Evaluation Panels and Their Members
Key Role in Evaluation Procedure: the Evaluation Panels and Their Members
The SNSF's National Research Council decides whether or not to fund applications. The 89 evaluation panels handle the preparatory work on which it bases its decisions, assessing several thousand applications each year.
Ten Ways to Improve Academic CVs for Fairer Research Assessment
Ten Ways to Improve Academic CVs for Fairer Research Assessment
Academic CVs are ubiquitous and play an integral role in the assessment of researchers. They define and portray what activities and achievements are considered important in the scientific system.
The Open Reviewers Toolkit is Now Openly Available
The PREreview team is very excited to announce the publication of the Open Reviewer Toolkit, three guides to help with the unbiased composition and assessment of research manuscripts' review. The guides are openly available for download on Zenodo under CC-BY 4.0 license.
Without a Clear Sense of Purpose, What is the Future of National Research Assessment Exercises in Australia?
Without a Clear Sense of Purpose, What is the Future of National Research Assessment Exercises in Australia?
Australia’s ERA and EIA research assessment exercises lack a clearly defined purpose, or return on investment for Australian universities. In a climate of declining trust in the Australian Research Council, together with a confused idea about how research should be funded, the assessment regime itself is at a critical point of juncture.
Responsible Research Assessment Faces the Acid Test
The University of Liverpool is planning to make lay-offs on the basis of controversial measures. How should the global movement for responsible research respond?
The Changing Role of Funders in Responsible Research Assessment: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead
The Changing Role of Funders in Responsible Research Assessment: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead
A responsible research assessment would incentivise, reflect and reward the plural characteristics of high-quality research, in support of diverse and inclusive research cultures.
COVID is Amplifying the Inadequacy of Research-Evaluation Processes
COVID is Amplifying the Inadequacy of Research-Evaluation Processes
Systems for assessing scientists' work must properly account for a lost year of research - especially for female researchers.
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