Narrative CVs risk worsening the biases they aim to redress
One-size-fits-all approach gives fluent writing an outsize role in research success.
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Open Science Has Spawned a New Wave of Metric-Driven Evaluation
Open Science Has Spawned a New Wave of Metric-Driven Evaluation
Measures intended to encourage openness are clashing with efforts to reform assessment
Unanswered Questions in Research Assessment - Whose Values Lead Value-led Approaches?
Unanswered Questions in Research Assessment - Whose Values Lead Value-led Approaches?
Reform efforts may need to reconsider the usefulness of value-led strategies.
Research Assessment Has Always Been Controversial, Yet It Necessarily Persists
Research Assessment Has Always Been Controversial, Yet It Necessarily Persists
Arguing about research assessment has been a central feature of seventy-five years of higher education policy.
The Impact of Winning Funding on Researcher Productivity, Results from a Randomized Trial
The Impact of Winning Funding on Researcher Productivity, Results from a Randomized Trial
In this small randomized trial, research funding did not have a clear impact on researcher productivity. However, the expanded use of modified lotteries in the allocation of grant funding has the potential to revolutionize the measurement of research productivity.
Randomisation Can Resolve the Uncertainty at the Heart of Peer Review
Randomisation Can Resolve the Uncertainty at the Heart of Peer Review
Embracing uncertainty could improve peer review processes.
Assessments of Research Culture Should Be Open About Failure
Research assessments regularly focus on outstanding and unique achievements, rather than the everyday failures and disappointments associated with academic work. Discussing a recent self-assessment and annual research report at Maastricht University that took a more candid approach to failure, Sally Wyatt suggests that research culture can benefit from a more realistic appraisal of failure.
Coara Hosts First Dialogue Between National Chapters
Fifteen national groups coordinating researcher assessment reform hold first meeting in Portugal
I Couldn’t Move For A Postdoc. Fellowship Reviewers Shouldn’t Have Penalized Me For It
I Couldn’t Move For A Postdoc. Fellowship Reviewers Shouldn’t Have Penalized Me For It
I wasn’t surprised to learn I hadn’t been selected for a prestigious postdoc fellowship. I had applied mostly hoping for feedback that would improve my application the following year. But comments from two reviewers made me rethink my plan to apply again—and even whether to continue in academia.
Removing Numerical Scoring When Evaluating Grant Proposals Found to Have No Effect on Outcomes
Removing Numerical Scoring When Evaluating Grant Proposals Found to Have No Effect on Outcomes
Not using a numerical scoring system to review research grant proposals has little impact on the way that evaluators carry out their written assessment and the final outcome of the review, a new study has found.
Gender Bias in Funding Evaluation: A Randomized Experiment
Gender Bias in Funding Evaluation: A Randomized Experiment
Gender differences in research funding exist but bias evidence is elusive and findings are contradictory. Contrary to some previous research, a new study found no evidence that male or female PIs received significantly different scores.
Highlight or Hide - What Role Should Peer Review Have in Researcher Development?
Highlight or Hide - What Role Should Peer Review Have in Researcher Development?
Peer review is, at heart, a process of validation - but how do you learn to peer review?
Is 'Wokeism' Slowly Killing Scientific Merit? Look to the Latter for the Real Threat to Science
Is 'Wokeism' Slowly Killing Scientific Merit? Look to the Latter for the Real Threat to Science
While some worry "wokeist" ideology could corrupt scientific merit, it could be our problematic understanding of the latter that poses an even greater threat to science, two philosophers argue.
Although Hard to Define, Narrative CVs Are Changing How We Think About Researcher Assessment
Although Hard to Define, Narrative CVs Are Changing How We Think About Researcher Assessment
Narrative academic CVs present a means to bypass aspects of a research evaluation culture that is focused on the volume and venue of publications. Drawing on work promoting this format, researchers show how these texts more often foreground the problems they are meant to address, than how the format works in practice.
More Carrot, Less Stick: How to Make Research Assessments Fairer
Research-assessment exercises are often misused to judge researchers or cut their funding - changes to the United Kingdom's scheme are a promising start.
Beyond the Doughnut - Five Ways to Use Altmetrics for Academic Success
Beyond the Doughnut - Five Ways to Use Altmetrics for Academic Success
A decade on since their inception, Andy Tattersall considers how academics can make use of altmetrics in ways that go beyond counts and metrics.
Crucial! New! Essential! - The Rise of Hype in Research and Impact Assessment
Crucial! New! Essential! - The Rise of Hype in Research and Impact Assessment
Hyberbolic adjectives have been on the rise in academic writing. A study explores how this persuasive language is deployed across different fields of research
Horizon Europe Missions Gear Up for Their First Evaluation
Horizon Europe Missions Gear Up for Their First Evaluation
The targeted research Missions set up under Horizon Europe are turning three years old this year, and their ambitious logic is facing its first test in an upcoming review at the midpoint of the EU's €95.9 billion research programme.
DORA at 10: Looking Back at the History and Forward to the Future of Research Assessment
DORA at 10: Looking Back at the History and Forward to the Future of Research Assessment
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated.
German Universities Still Wary of EU Push to Reform Research Assessment
German Universities Still Wary of EU Push to Reform Research Assessment
The European Commission is making a big push to reform research assessment, but Germany's university leaders are not convinced the call for change from above is the right way to deliver it.
Funders Support Use of Reviewed Preprints in Research Assessment
Funders and other research organisations are embracing reviewed preprints as an alternative way to assess researchers, and call on others to do the same.
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
More funders should consider using randomization to choose grant recipients when decisions are too close to call.
Stress-Inducing and Anxiety-Ridden: A Practice-Based Approach to the Construction of Status-Bestowing Evaluations in Research Funding
Stress-Inducing and Anxiety-Ridden: A Practice-Based Approach to the Construction of Status-Bestowing Evaluations in Research Funding
More than resource allocations, evaluations of funding applications have become central instances for status bestowal in academia. Much attention in past literature has been devoted to grasping the status consequences of prominent funding evaluations.
Agreement Reached on Research Assessment Reforms
The document, which was facilitated by the European Commission, establishes new benchmarks regarding how research assessments should be performed.
Research Performance and Scholarly Communication Profile of Competitive Research Funding: the Case of Academy of Finland - Scientometrics
Research Performance and Scholarly Communication Profile of Competitive Research Funding: the Case of Academy of Finland - Scientometrics
The Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland's major public research funding agency, uses a Web of Science (WoS) based bibliometric indicator to assess the performance of research it has funded. CRIS-based publication data can support multidimensional assessments of research performance and scholarly communication profiles, potentially also in other countries and institutions.
EU Science Ministers Agree on Reform
EU science ministers signed off an agreement backing research assessment reform in Europe, alongside conclusions on open science, international cooperation and Horizon Europe missions.
Swiss Funder Unveils New CV Format to Make Grant Evaluation Fairer
Swiss Funder Unveils New CV Format to Make Grant Evaluation Fairer
The Swiss National Science Foundation's 'narrative' template seeks evidence of applicants' wider contributions to science.
Council to Adopt Position on Reforming Research Assessment, but Stresses One Size Should Not Be Made to Fit All
Council to Adopt Position on Reforming Research Assessment, but Stresses One Size Should Not Be Made to Fit All
Member states are set to adopt a position backing research assessment reform in Europe - but they'll stress that any reforms must take into account the diversity of research systems in the EU, according to a draft document seen by Science|Business. Research ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Friday to sign off Council conclusions for research assessment reform in Europe, alongside conclusions on open science, international cooperation and Horizon Europe missions.
To Boost South Korea's Basic Science, Look to Values, Not Just Budgets
To Boost South Korea's Basic Science, Look to Values, Not Just Budgets
The country has been increasing research funding for decades, but its rigid, time-bound approach to research assessment is stifling basic science.
Designing Grant-Review Panels for Better Funding Decisions: Lessons from an Empirically Calibrated Simulation Model
Designing Grant-Review Panels for Better Funding Decisions: Lessons from an Empirically Calibrated Simulation Model
This article explores how factors relating to grades and grading affect the correctness of choices that grant-review panels make among submitted proposals. It seeks to identify interventions in panel design that may be expected to increase the correctness of choices.
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