CoARA
The European initiative CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) arose from a consensus in the research community on the urgent need to reform current research assessment methods.
It is a coalition of organisations such as public and private research funders, universities, research centres, institutes and infrastructures, research associations and alliances, national and regional authorities, accreditation and assessment of agencies, scientific societies and researcher associations, and other relevant organisations, representing a wide diversity of views and perspectives.
In this regard, it should be noted that assessment processes that rely predominantly on journal and publication-based metrics can be an obstacle to the recognition of diverse contributions and can negatively affect the quality and impact of research. They also contribute to an unhealthy research culture and an unattinable publication system.
The Universidade Vigo joined CoARA in December 2022 and is integrated in the National Chapter to discuss and design good assessment practices.
One of UVigo's commitments to CoARA was the development and approval of an institutional action plan in response to the Agreement on Research Assessment Reform. This plan was approved by the Governing Council on 20 June 2024 and describes the actions that UVigo is committed to carrying out during the period 2024-2027:
General principles
- Comply with standards and practices of ethics and integrity.
- Safeguard the freedom of scientific research.
- Respect the autonomy of research organisations.
- Ensure independence and transparency of data, infrastructures and criteria.
- Focus research assessment criteria on quality.
- Recognise contributions that advance knowledge and potential impact.
- Recognise the diversity of research activities, practices, and outcomes.
- Respect the variety of scientific disciplines, types of research and career stages.
- Recognise and value diversity in research roles and careers.
- Ensure gender equality, equal opportunities and inclusion.
Commitments
- Recognise the diversity of contributions to, and careers in, research in accordance with the needs and nature of the research.
- Base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation for which peer review is central, supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators.
- Abandon inappropriate uses in research assessment of journal- and publication-based metrics, in particular inappropriate uses of Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and h-index.
- Avoid the use of rankings of research organisations in research assessment.
- Commit resources to reforming research assessment that are needed to achieve the organisational changes committed to.
- Review and develop research assessment criteria, tools and processes.
- Raise awareness of research assessment reform and provide transparent communication, guidance, and training on assessment criteria and processes as well as their use.
- Exchange practices and experiences to enable mutual learning within and beyond the coalition.
- Communicate progress made on adherence to the Principles and implementation of the commitments.
- Assess practices, criteria, and tools based on solid evidence and the state-of-the-art in research on research, and make data openly available to the rest of the community for evidence gathering and research.
Office of the Vice-Rector for Research, Transfer and Innovation
Edificio Filomena Dato
As Lagoas, Marcosende
36310 Vigo
+34 986 813 597
vicinv@uvigo.gal