Today the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management publishes its findings, available here.
Our report The Metric Tide identifies 20 recommendations for stakeholders across the research system, covering the following areas: supporting the effective leadership, governance and management of research cultures; improving the data infrastructure that supports research information management; increasing the usefulness of existing data and information sources; using metrics in the next REF; and coordinating activity and building evidence.
We’ve tried to chart a balanced and evidence-informed path through these debates: supporting responsible uses of metrics and indicators; highlighting the steps required to improve data quality, infrastructure and coverage across disciplines for future cycles of the REF and other purposes; but warning against harmful uses that can choke off the diversity of research qualities and impacts that are so important.
In addition to our main report, today we also publish a detailed literature review, and a correlation analysis of REF2014 scores and metrics. These can also be downloaded here.
We will be launching these reports at an event in London this morning. We’ve also been pleased to see the review picking up some coverage in Nature, Times Higher Education, Guardian and Research Fortnight:
- http://www.nature.com/news/a-numbers-game-1.17922
- http://www.nature.com/news/we-need-a-measured-approach-to-metrics-1.17928
- https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/metrics-how-to-handle-them-responsibly
- http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2015/jul/09/the-metric-tide-responsible-indicators-research
- http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleId=1353404
After today, we will be posting further responses & encouraging wider debate about responsible metrics on this blog and via twitter at @ResMetrics and #HEFCEmetrics.
We’d greatly value your comments and feedback on the report, and thoughts on how we as a community can take forward an agenda for responsible metrics.
James Wilsdon
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