Towards a Culture of Collaboration: New Rules for Research Assessment

The European Union has already started to directly attack publish-or-perish culture, planning fundamental reforms on the way research is assessed. In February 2022, the Paris Open Science Conference has adopted the “Paris Call on Research Assessment”.

A new research assessment system is needed that is based on the intrinsic merits and impact, that takes account of the full range of possible research outputs and acitivities, that acknowledges the fact that there is a diversity of individual career paths and that, most importantly, rewards open science practices.

Currently, the Commission is gathering support to implement the reform. Up to now, more than 160 organisations have joined the initiative. The European Research Council (ERC) has already completely banned the use of journal impact factors in their evaluations.

TASK

Read the “Paris Call on Research Assessment” and explain to your fellow learners in the comments why changing the research assessment is an “operation on the open heart” of science.