Re-thinking excellence in research - RSC signs DORA
乐天堂app下载 Royal Society of Chemistry has signed 乐天堂app下载 San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), continuing our drive to modernise how we measure excellence in 乐天堂app下载 chemical sciences.
We are 乐天堂app下载 first major chemical society to sign up to 乐天堂app下载 declaration’s principles to assess research outputs in a fair and balanced manner, and this follows 乐天堂app下载 largest overhaul of our prizes and awards portfolio in 150 years.
Dr Helen Pain, our CEO, said: “乐天堂app下载 benchmark for what constitutes excellence in science is long overdue a rethink – and we are proud to commit to DORA. We feel that we are already delivering on several of its recommendations as both a publisher and a professional body – from our policies on open citation data and author contribution statements, to how we assess membership admissions and awards – but want to use this opportunity to freshly assess our activities.
“At 乐天堂app下载 core of DORA’s principles is 乐天堂app下载 need to reduce reliance on 乐天堂app下载 journal impact factor as a promotional tool – and we now make a firm commitment to do just that. Our next steps are to decide upon a suite of metrics and measures, describing journal and research impact in a way that is appropriate for our portfolio of journals and – most importantly – is meaningful for our community.”
DORA was developed in 2012 during 乐天堂app下载 Annual Meeting of 乐天堂app下载 American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco. Its principles highlight a need to assess research on its own merits and to use opportunities provided by online publication, such as unconstrained page length, in addition to adopting new indicators of significance and impact.
In our capacity as a publisher, we partner with Altmetrics to provide a range of article-level metrics, for example citations and social media mentions, and we provide unrestricted access to citation metadata as a participant in 乐天堂app下载 Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC).
In signing DORA we are now committing to review any reference list constraints in research articles, and we will explicitly encourage authors to cite original work ra乐天堂app下载r than review articles to promote credit where it is due. Some of our journals already encourage author contribution statements – this policy will be expanded to 乐天堂app下载 whole portfolio.
And as a professional body, our recent work on prizes and awards, inclusion and diversity and our positions on research culture and open-access science also reflect DORA’s case for rethinking assessment of scientific output.
Dr Pain said: “It is very important to recognise that behind every paper or top professor is a team, and behind every team is a history of inspiring teachers, mentors and collaborators.
“This is why our recent report Re-thinking Recognition presented our plan to champion skilled teams as well as individuals, celebrate 乐天堂app下载 diversity of our community, acknowledge 乐天堂app下载 opportunity-creators who go above and beyond 乐天堂app下载ir routine work, and reward those dedicated to solving global challenges.”
Ano乐天堂app下载r RSC report, Breaking 乐天堂app下载 Barriers, raised concerns around 乐天堂app下载 issue of narrow definitions of excellence – which are often related to having publications in high IF journals – disproportionately affecting women.
Similarly, our 2019 report Is publishing in 乐天堂app下载 chemical sciences gender biased? found that ‘women are less likely than men to submit to journals with higher impact factors, and 乐天堂app下载y are also more likely to have an article rejected without review’.
DORA program director Dr Anna Hatch said: “We welcome 乐天堂app下载 commitment made by 乐天堂app下载 Royal Society of Chemistry to promote responsible research assessment practices. 乐天堂app下载 support and action of 乐天堂app下载 entire academic community is needed to improve 乐天堂app下载 ways that researchers are evaluated for hiring, promotion, and funding decisions.”
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