[BOAI] SPARC Honors Creators of The Declaration On Research Assessment (DORA)

[Iryna Kuchma]

[Forwarded message from Andrea Higginbotham]

*SPARC Honors Creators of The Declaration On Research Assessment With SPARC
Innovator Award*

Washington, D.C. – July 22, 2013

Evaluating good research and recognizing accomplished researchers is an
important component of science, but, critics claim that there has been too
much emphasis placed on using the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) as a proxy to
assess impact.

The JIF is a quick and easy way to assess the average number of
citations in a journal. However, many in the scientific community feel that
it has been applied inappropriately to measure articles and individual
researchers, and has come to dominate publishing decisions and academic
personnel matters in a way that skews scientific judgments.

Taking a strong first step on the road reversing this trend, in May of this
year, 237 individuals and institutions signed the San Francisco Declaration
on Research Assessment (DORA), which calls for an improvement in the way
the output of scientific research is evaluated.

The declaration poses a simple but bold proposition: that journal-based
metrics should not be used as a surrogate measure of the quality of
individual research articles, to assess an individual
scientist’s contributions, or in making hiring, promotion or funding
decisions.

Since it was issued, the statement has resonated in diverse corners of the
scientific community and more than 8,700 individuals and 340 organizations
have pledged their support to the campaign by signing the
online declaration.

Among those leading the DORA efforts:

David Drubin, editor-in-chief of The American Society for Cell
Biology’s journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC), and professor of
cell and developmental biology at the University of California at Berkeley;

Stefano Bertuzzi, executive director of the ASCB;

Bernd Pulverer, head of scientific publications for the European Molecular
Biology Organization;

Mark Patterson, Executive Director of eLife in Cambridge, England;

and Mike Rossner, former executive director of The Rockefeller University
Press

For their work in trying to change the broad use of the Journal Impact
Factor as the sole measure used to assess research and researchers, SPARC
recognizes the creators of DORA with its July 2013 Innovator Award.

While reliance on journal metrics has been a community concern for some
time, the DORA organizers said the issue came to a head as funding
for research has stagnated in many countries and competition has
intensified to get into prestigious journals. They contend the current
system of evaluation is embedded but there is a general view that reliance
on metrics has gone too far. The movement started within cell biologists,
but the supporters now include social scientists, mathematicians, and
chemists from both the U.S. and around the world.

The July 2013 SPARC Innovator Profile is online at
www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator.

The SPARC Innovator program recognizes advances in scholarly communication
propelled by an individual, institution, or group. Typically, these
advances exemplify SPARC principles by challenging the status quo in
scholarly communication for the benefit of researchers, libraries,
universities, and the public. SPARC Innovators are featured on the SPARC
Web site semi-annually and have included The Health Research Alliance, The
World Bank, PLOS One, Biological Anthropologist Ventura R. Pérez, Mike
Rossner, executive director of The Rockefeller University Press (RUP) in
New York, The Optical Society of America, and others. SPARC Innovators are
selected by the SPARC staff in consultation with the SPARC Steering
Committee.

For further information or a list of previous SPARC Innovators, please see
the SPARC Web site at www.sparc.arl.org.

###

SPARC
Today membership in SPARC (and our partner organizations SPARC Europe and
SPARC Japan) numbers nearly 800 institutions in North America, Europe,
Japan, China, and Australia. SPARC also is actively affiliated with major
library, academic and advocacy organizations through our active coalition
work. SPARC’s advocacy, educational, and publisher partnership programs
encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web at
www.sparc.arl.org.





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Andrea Brusca Higginbotham
Communications Manager, SPARC
21 Dupont Circle, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 296-2296 ext 121
andrea at arl.org
www.arl.org/sparc

Open Access Week 2013
October 21-27
http://www.openaccessweek.org/
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