Time to change the research evaluation system

It all started nearly a year ago, as it was recognised in January 2022 that changes were needed. In the middle of the year, the full text of the agreement adopted by the members of the Coalition for the Reform of Research Assessment (CoARA) was presented, and the Coalition's Constituent Assembly was held in early December. It was attended by more than 300 organisations, whose representatives elected a Steering Board. It was headed by Rianne Letschert, proposed by Maastricht University, Universities of the Netherlands and the Young European Research Universities Network – YERUN.

The establishment of CoARA was based on the European Commission's decision to sign the Agreement on Research Assessment Reform in November – it sets a common direction for changes in assessment practices of scientists, researchers and research organisations to maximise the quality and impact of research. At the same time, the EC endorsed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). It was developed in 2012 and makes recommendations for improving the evaluation of researchers and research outputs – the idea is to reduce reliance on journal-based indicators such as measures of journal impact and citations. The aim of the changes is to shift the focus towards the value of research.

The coalition, joined by the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, is intended to facilitate the exchange of information, mutual learning between all those interested in improving research evaluation practices and enable systemic reform. The timeframe envisaged is that by the end of 2023, its signatories will have launched a review of research evaluation criteria, tools and processes - transparently and therefore keeping the communities they represent informed about everything. In turn, by the end of 2027, the changes developed will be implemented. The need for this is most clearly expressed by Mark Schiltz, President of Science Europe: "Publish or perish" and metrics have led us down a dead end. Let's start to see the full range of values created by researchers.

He is echoed by Michael Murphy, President of the European University Association (EUA), making no secret of the fact that it is time to move beyond the declarations made so far and to be clear about how the scientific community sees the future of research evaluation: - Universities, researchers and all stakeholders must choose how they want to be evaluated, and they must do it now.

On December 1, 2022, the first meeting of the Coalition's Steering Board took place. During the meeting, Rianne Letschert, the newly elected Chair of CoARA, stated that "we need a better balance in the way we reward scientists" and stressed the "urgent need for more diversity of career paths in academia", but above all, the Coalition's initial work plan and budget were approved and the European Science Foundation (ESF)-Science Connect was formally established. Among the Coalition's members, the Polish scientific community is represented by the the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, the Conference of Academic Schools in Poland, the Foundation for Polish Science, the University of Warsaw, the AGH University of Science and Technology, the Krakow University of Technology, the Poznan University of Technology, and the Medical University of Wrocław.

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