Responsible use of metrics is becoming increasingly important for institutions, funders, and even publishers. Many initiatives and resources to support responsible metrics have appeared recently. The following list covers main initiatives and resources but is not exhaustive:
Initiatives
- San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
- Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics
- The Metric Tide (report by Research England)
- Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)
- Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information
- Snowball Metrics
- The UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics
San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is a globally recognised initiative aiming to improve the ways in which research outputs
Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics sets out ten principles to guide research evaluation. These principles shape most of the responsible use of metrics policies of many institutions.
The Metric Tide report was published by Research England (previously HEFCE) in 2015 investigating the role of quantitative metrics and how should they be used in a responsible way. The report identifies five key principles in responsible use (robustness, humility, transparency, diversity, and reflexivity).
CoARA is a global alliance dedicated to reforming assessment practices for research, researchers, and institutions to maximise the quality and impact of research. The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment aims ‘basing assessment primarily on qualitative judgement supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators’.
The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was drafted by a group of information experts. The signatories of the declaration commit to take a lead in transforming how research information is used and produced. It advocates that information for research evaluation should be ‘accessible and auditable by those being assessed’.
Snowball Metrics is an initiative by research-intensive universities aiming to agree on methodologies of metrics to enable confident comparison.
This Forum is a platform consisting of UK HEIs to support the responsible use of research metrics in higher education institutions and across the research community in the UK.
Resources
- Guidance on the responsible use of quantitative indicators in research assessment
- Metrics Toolkit
- Using Scival Responsibly: A Guide to Interpretation and Good Practice
- Using Altmetric Data Responsibly: A Guide to Interpretation and Good Practice
This guide is released by DORA explaining the use of several indicators used in research assessment.
It is a toolkit to make researchers and evaluators to better understand and use citations, web metrics, and alternative metrics responsibly in the research assessment.
This guide ‘designed to help those who use SciVal to source and apply bibliometrics in academic institutions’.
This guide aims to explain how to use Altmetric responsibly in research assessment by explaining its strengths and weaknesses.