Although the internet has changed the publishing world, including academic publishing, standards for rank advancement for professors have not changed much since pre-internet days. The Journal Impact Factor is a major metric for measuring success, quantifying professors’ involvement in academic journal publication, conference participation, and citation counts. It leaves out newer forms of impact, such as open scholarship, community service, and new publication types and alt metrics (McKiernan et al, 2019).
I was looking for a university model showing how some colleges set up rank advancement to include a broader, more modern view of rank advancement. Instead, I found a declaration of independence from the current system of research assessment. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is a science-discipline declaration with thousands of signatures joining to protest the use of unfair, manipulable journal publishing matrices. They call for a focus on the actual quality of the research, not on the journal it gets published in. They argue for making the most of the publishing affordances of the internet, getting rid of excessive word limits or reference limits. Here are some of the recommendations to institutions and individual faculty members alike:
"For institutions
Be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage investigators, that the scientific content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published.
For the purposes of research assessment, consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.
For researchers
When involved in committees making decisions about funding, hiring, tenure, or promotion, make assessments based on scientific content rather than publication metrics.
Wherever appropriate, cite primary literature in which observations are first reported rather than reviews in order to give credit where credit is due.
Use a range of article metrics and indicators on personal/supporting statements, as evidence of the impact of individual published articles and other research outputs [11].
Challenge research assessment practices that rely inappropriately on Journal Impact Factors and promote and teach best practices." (Declaration of Research Assessment)
There are other suggestions in the declaration, as well. The recommendations listed here hint at the problems inherent in an antiquated system. The question I have is if this type of declaration can become an institutional guide post for more than just scientists. Perhaps each discipline does not need to make their own declaration if institutions adopt recommendations that fit with these recommendations and the age of the internet.
American Society for Cell Biology. (2012). San Francisco declaration on research Assessment (DORA).
Thanks, Emily, for sharing this information that is applicable for institutions as well as researchers. The statements push for quality and truth in scholarship that should apply not only to scientific research but to academia in general.
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