Ten Years After DORA: Where do Publishers Stand on Research Assessment Reform

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (“DORA”) is turning ten this year! Shared with the broader academic community at a time when activity – and activism – aiming to redefine scholarly communication was high, DORA was ultimately the first high-profile call for research assessment reform to be issued in the last ten years. Aiming to address flaws such as improper use of journal impact factors and uneven prioritization of journal articles over other research outputs, DORA has grown into a global community of practice engaging publishers, researchers, and administrators worldwide.

Academic publishers play a central role in the success of this call: their significant influence over which and how research is distributed has impacted research practices for centuries. In this poster, we examined whether academic publishers adhering to DORA effectively implement transparent and responsible research assessment guidelines. Particular attention was paid to the role that scholarly communication plays in the incentive and reward structure supporting the academic enterprise, highlighting open challenges and opportunities available to scholarly publishers to build trust, advance transparency and help to transform research assessment as it is currently practised.