The Declaration on Research Assessment: What is it and should we sign it?
The University of Waterloo is considering signing the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). This webpage helps explain what it is and what that might mean for you and your colleagues.
What is DORA?
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA):
- is a global, cross-disciplinary initiative to improve how we assess research and researchers.
- calls on institutions, funders, publishers, and researchers to evaluate the quality, influence, and context of researched-related work, rather than relying solely on journal-based metrics.
- allows for the opportunity to also consider other outputs of research as valuable contributions to the research community as well as society.
- invites organizations and individuals to sign and adopt practical approaches to responsible research assessment.
At the heart of the declaration is a shift from solely proxy indicators (e.g., journal impact factors) to evidence-based assessment of contributions across diverse outputs – not just articles, but also datasets, software, policy impacts, public reports, partnerships, and other forms of knowledge mobilization.
In other words, DORA is an additive exercise.
It does not ask us to abandon respect for and recognition of traditional scholarship, as demonstrated in peer-reviewed publications, but rather notes that universities and researchers should also value a wide-range of other contributions to knowledge and society.
Many other organizations in Canada have already signed DORA, including:
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DORA will have impacts across the University of Waterloo. Imagine the following research outputs now being ‘counted’ as scholarship and assessed for their impact in a meaningful way:
- a computer science research team whose open-source code base is used by industry;
- a lab that curates FAIR datasets with DOIs that are re-used by other researchers around the world;
- a research centre whose policy briefs inform municipal decisions across Canada;
- or community-engaged projects that co-produce reports, tools, or participatory training sessions that change how services and care are provided.
Under DORA, these outputs would be assessed on their quality, reach, and impact, as opposed to solely focusing on an associated journal article.
Your funding agencies and DORA
The Tri-Agencies (SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR) have signed DORA and are actively aligning programs and peer review practices with its principles. A major step is the Tri-Agency Narrative CV, now rolling out across funding opportunities (e.g. NSERC Discovery Horizons, CIHR Project grants), that values a broad range of outputs and lets applicants explain contributions, context, mentorship, and societal impact. For many researchers, the narrative CV is an opportunity to catalogue and explain the impact and importance of traditional peer-reviewed publications; for others, the narrative CV provides the opportunity to highlight other research outputs demonstrating productivity and impact ranging from policy contributions to patents.
Further, review guidance directs committees to assess work on its merits and avoid journal-based metrics (an example from NSERC).
In other words, even if the University of Waterloo does not sign DORA, research assessment practices within Canadian (and many international) funding agencies will increasingly reflect these principles.
What's Waterloo doing now?
In Waterloo@100, we made a bold statement that the University of Waterloo will value “knowledge that counts over being counted,” that we will incentivize societal impact, and that we will not rely solely on traditional metrics for student achievement, scholarship, and teaching excellence. Many of our policies are already forward thinking. For example, Policy 77, on Tenure and Promotion, describes scholarship in several equally valuable forms and emphasizes that the primary assessment of quality, originality, and impact comes from review of the work itself. DORA naturally complements this.
Signing DORA would formalize and operationalize these commitments: turning aspiration into practice for how we recruit, develop, recognize, and promote our scholars.
What does it mean if we sign DORA?
We are currently at the stage of discussing, as a university, as to whether we should sign DORA. If there is interest in signing, we will develop guidance as well as the necessary supports for training and conduct pilot projects to ensure systems within faculties align with DORA. Throughout this process, as well as after any potential signing, there will be ongoing consultation with all interested parties across campus to operationalize the DORA recommendations f or our researchers. The process of improving research assessment is never “done,” as in the case of DORA, it requires an ongoing cultural shift.
Further, we could see significant changes in several areas:
- Recognizing that schools/departments vote every two years on their annual performance review metrics, we could provide toolkits to schools/departments to consider when crafting these to align with DORA and emerging practices across the Tri-Agencies when it comes to research assessment. For example, APR templates could invite narrative statements, emphasize that all outputs should be considered (whether they are datasets, policy submissions, or high-impact journal articles), alongside evidence of quality and impact.
- Relatedly, for Tenure and Promotion, we could encourage training and mentorship for Department/School, Faculty, and University-level committees to emphasize that publication venue metrics are not surrogates for quality, and the importance of committees to evaluate the work and its contributions.
- We also recognize that training will be essential, both for those who now need to prepare narrative CVs, but also for those who are reviewing them.
Ranging from those who are curating and publishing high-quality research datasets (in alignment with the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy) to those engaged in community-engaged or participatory research, which requires a high degree of relationship building and co-creation of research outputs.
Signing DORA would codify what Waterloo both notes that we do in Policy 77 as well as what we aspire to do in Waterloo@100. It would help support our researchers in Tri Agency competitions that are adopting narrative CVs, and strengthen equity by recognizing diverse forms of excellence across disciplines and methods.
In sum, DORA would give us a clear, internationally recognized framework, a common vocabulary, and practical tools to keep improving our assessment culture.
Members of the DORA Working Group will be visiting Faculties to gather feedback, either directly or through your Department Chairs or School Directors.
But we would also love to hear from you directly.
Please complete the form below, which consists of three simple questions.