Committing to global reform in research assessment: DORA
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA, ) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. Developed in 2012 during the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco, it has become a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines and all key stakeholders including funders, publishers, professional societies, institutions, data providers and researchers. Over 2,800 organizations and over 20,000 individuals in 161 countries have signed the Declaration as of 2023.
Through community engagement, resource development, partnership, advising and convening, the DORA team aims to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines.
Reformed assessment is intended to establish greater equity and reward practices that are fit-for-purpose within context, recognizing variations relating to geographies, communities and scholarly disciplines. Schmidt (2022) illustrates a wide variety of academic achievements and outcomes that could be considered “impactful”, using a model that visualizes “impact” along a scale of contributions’ influence and extent of reach to new types of audiences (Figure 3.3).
Tools to Advance Research Assessment (TARA, 2021–2023) is a project to facilitate the development of new policies and practices for academic career assessment. It will help DORA identify, understand and make visible the criteria and standards that institutions, particularly universities, use to make hiring, promotion and tenure decisions. This information will be used to create resources and practical guidance on research assessment reform for academic and scholarly institutions.
Zen Faulkes (DORA)