Responsible Research Assessment & Use of Metrics

Undertaking research assessment responsibly means assessing the quality of the research undertaken and its outputs directly, rather than using quantitative short hands.   Relying on metrics associated with where a research output has been published, or who funded the research, rather than taking time to review the actual research can lead to decisions being made that affect researcher careers and research areas, without sufficient review of the intrinsic quality of the research itself.

Using metrics such as journal impact factors, a researcher's h-index, or institutional rankings to assess research isn't responsible in our view.  Our aim is to avoid the use of proxies such as these to assess research, and the researchers that have undertaken it, but instead to use peer review and our judgement based on the research itself.

Metrics associated with research have become a prominent feature of the research eco-system, these metrics have become a short hand for research quality but they aren't based on the quality of the actual research itself.  They are a feature of who funded the research, or where it was published, or how many other people are researching a topic.  It also isn't always clear how these metrics have been calculated or what a metric shows (a highly cited paper may have a flawed methodology that is referenced as an example of what not to do by others).

Relying on these metrics to make decisions about individuals and their research isn't fair to the individual, or the work undertaken to produce the research, and can cause us to overlook important or impactful work.  Making sure peer-review is fore-most in our assessment of research and researchers is a route to undertaking responsible research assessment.

CoARA is a collective of organisations committed to reforming the methods and processes by which research, researchers, and research organisations are evaluated.  As a signatory we have agreed to implement reform in the assessment of research, researchers, and research organisations, outlined in the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment published in July 2022.

Our CoARA action plan will be published after approval by Research Strategy Group in May 2025.  Our DORA and CoARA commitments will inform our work reviewing the academic promotion process and our REF 2029 preparations.

We set up our Research Metrics Working Group in 2019 for two years. The group reported to our Research Policy Group (now Research Strategy Group) and was chaired by Professor Andrew Millar. The group's remit which included oversight of the University’s policy and action plan on responsible research metrics,  and facilitated continuous improvement in research assessment practice. It also advised on new and innovative potential uses of research information to support excellence in research.  The outputs of this working group were incorporated into our Research Cultures Action Plan.

Training & Good Practice Resources

Resources on responsible research assessment and responsible use of metrics are available via the link below.