Research culture
The University of Exeter is a signatory of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) which commits us to improving the ways in which we assess researchers and scholarly outputs. There is also a University wide “responsible metrics champions” group that aims to help others to become aware of, understand and improve use of DORA and the broader responsible research metrics agenda. As a department we want to lead change in this area, and are committed to driving open, reproducible research and inclusive research assessment. Moreover, appointments and promotions committees within the department will take on board the responsible use of metrics and promote consistency and transparency - in alignment with DORA principles - and assess research and researchers on their own merits.
The general recommendation of DORA is “Do not use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.”
The DORA recommendations for institutions are:
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Be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage investigators, that the scientific content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published.
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For the purposes of research assessment, consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.
The full list of DORA recommendations can be found at https://sfdora.org/read/
Within the CEC if you have any questions regarding these topics or concerns we are not adhering to the above principles then please contact the CEC responsible metrics group representative (B.Longdon2@exeter.ac.uk) and HoD (HoD-CEC-Cornwall@exeter.ac.uk).
