The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) recently announced their formal endorsement of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) in hopes that their action will encourage others to acknowledge the need to improve research assessment practices. While I read this announcement with interest, I also wondered: What’s been happening with DORA? Has DORA had any impact in the research community? Has any progress been made?

DORA began as a conversation during a meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology that took place in 2012 in San Francisco. Journal editors, researchers, as well as, other interested individuals came together to discuss the output and results of scientific research with the desire to eliminate the use of journal-based metrics (e.g. Impact Factor).  There were two other themes or recommendations made – the need to assess research on its own merits; and the need to capitalize on the opportunities provided by web-based publications (use and leverage other research impact indicators, such as, Altmetrics/online attention metrics). In June 2013, I published a blog about this initiative, entitled “Evaluating Scientific Research: Recommendations from DORA” and noted that organizers had obtained signatures from 310 organizations and 8,106 individuals — all willing to acknowledge and support this declaration. Continue reading →