The University of Edinburgh has signed up to CoARA
The University of Edinburgh has signed up to the Coalition of Advancing Research Assessment[1]. It is a European initiative with an international span that establishes a common direction for research assessment reform while respecting organisations’ autonomy. CoARA was launched on 1 Jan 2022.
What is Coalition of Advancing Research Assessment?
The vision of the Coalition of Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is that the assessment of research, researchers and research organisations needs to recognise that diverse outputs, practices and activities contribute to the quality and impact of research. This requires basing assessment primarily on qualitative judgement for which peer review is central, supported by a responsible use of quantitative metrics.
What are the benefits of becoming a signatory to Coalition of Advancing Research Assessment?
Signing the Agreement is an opportunity for organisations to publicly show they support the objective of reforming research assessment along the CoARA Principles, and to implement its Commitments. In a UK context it is worth noting that the Future Research Assessment Programme are enthusiastic about the commitments of CoARA.
What are signatories to CoARA expected to do?
CoARA has ten commitments, which are in summary:
- Recognise the diversity of contributions to, and careers in, research in accordance with the needs and nature of the research.
- Base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation for which peer review is central, supported by responsible use of qualitative indicators.
- Abandon inappropriate use of journal- and publication-based metrics in research assessment, in particular inappropriate uses of Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and h-index.
- Avoid the use of rankings of research organisations in research assessment.
- Commit resources to reforming research assessment as is needed to achieve organisational change.
- Review and develop research assessment criteria, tools and processes.
- Raise awareness of research assessment reform and provide transparent communications, guidance and training on assessment criteria and processes as well as their use.
- Exchange practices and experiences to enable mutual learning within and beyond the Coalition.
- Communicate progress made on adherence to the Principles and implementation of the Commitments.
- Evaluate practices, criteria and tools based on solid evidence and the state-of the-art in research on research, and make data openly available for evidence-gathering and research.
By the end of 2023 Edinburgh is expected to have started the process of evaluating its criteria, tools and processes. In the following years we are expected to make steady progress toward fulfilling the CoARA Commitments. There is no external assessment of progress. Instead, signatories are expected to carry out self-assessment as well as working with other signatories to CoARA to share good practice, experience of addressing challenges and lesson learnt. We envisage integrating our commitments as a signatory to CoARA into existing action plans, notably the Research Cultures Action Plan.
Which other organisations have signed CoARA?
As a signatory, Edinburgh joins more than 350 other organisations from over 40 nations[2], which include research funders, Universities and research centres, learned societies, National and regional authorities and other relevant bodies. Other UK signatories include UKRIO, Strathclyde and the UK Research Integrity Office. LERU and COIMBRA have both signed up to CoARA.
Susan Cooper
Strategic Research Executive (Research Policy) • Edinburgh Research Office
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