A call for an affordable publication system and a healthy research culture
“To promote and foster Open Science among our communities and around the world, there is a need to rethink our research career assessment system.”
Mickaël Menager, Vice President for Open Science at Université Paris Cité, as part of the Fast forward Open Science event
Current research assessment processes often rely too heavily on journal and publication-based metrics. Such metrics can limit the recognition of diverse contributions and may hinder the overall quality, impact, and openness of research. Circle U. is calling for a more inclusive and balanced system, which values a wide range of outputs and practices.
Inspired by the COARA initiative
Circle U. is inspired by and engages with the goals of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA). While not yet a signatory, the alliance shares COARA’s vision for reforming research assessment and fosters collaboration among members to:
- Recognise the diversity of contributions
- Implement primarily qualitative research evaluation
- Abandon journal and publication based metrics
- Avoid the use of rankings of research organisations in research assessment
Looking ahead
The Fast Forward Open Science event was the first Circle U. conference to bring together experts from diverse fields to exchange experiences and identify key challenges of Open Science.
Building on the documents published on the first phase (Recommendations to Policymakers on Open Science and Open Education booklet) — the event helped planned the next steps for our alliance. Together with our partner universities, Circle U. will:
- Host annual exchanges on Open Science and research assessment
- Update and expand recommendations for policymakers and institutions and develop a physical booklet
- Create and share online training materials to strengthen Open Science practices
