DORA Publishes “A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment”

From a DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) Post:

The DORA team is excited to have celebrated its 12th anniversary with the launch of a Practical Guide, to help research performing organizations (RPOs) develop responsible research assessment (RRA). This Guide is designed to support RPOs aiming to build capacity and support the implementation of  responsible research assessment (RRA) practices. The Guide reflects a collective effort and draws upon learnings from the DORA community.

Read the Complete Blog Post, Reports From Three Virtual Launch Events

Direct to Resource: A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15000683
67 pages; PDF. 

“A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations” provides action-oriented guidance, resources, and illustrative examples, for research performing organizations (RPOs) who are looking to shape and deliver responsible research assessment (RRA) practices. This includes RPOs who are looking to create an RRA strategy, organizations wanting to reform existing practices, and organizations simply wanting to take steps towards more holistic and inclusive approaches to research assessment.

One approach to research assessment certainly does not fit all, so the Guide is intended to be an inspirational tool. It is discipline-agnostic, flexible, and is intended to be adaptable to diverse organizational and disciplinary contexts by users. We envision the Practical Guide being modified and updated over time – and especially being enriched with real examples and through feedback from research performing organizations as they start to use it.

The Practical Guide has been co-developed especially with interest holders who met January 31, 2025 in Maryland, USA, whose valuable contributions we thank. We also thank the helpful feedback from DORA Steering Committee Members Sean Sapcariu and Bernd Pulverer. We are grateful to Janet Catterall for her help in compiling and organizing the references and supporting resources mentioned in the Guide.

The Practical Guide has been created as part of Project TARA and, alongside Reformscape, the Building Blocks for Impact, and the Debiasing Committee Composition, forms a suite of tools designed to help organizations who are seeking to reform research assessment practices. Project TARA is supported by Arcadia, a family charitable foundation that helps people to record cultural heritage, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge, whom we thank. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.2 billion to organizations around the world.

Direct to Resource: A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations

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