This panel takes a deep dive into research assessment reform and its interconnections with other policy priorities. With survey findings, expert insights, and interactive discussions, it will explore reform challenges, methods of evaluating progress, and how researchers can shape vital change.
Long Abstract
This panel takes a deep dive into research assessment reform and its interconnections. It will address current challenges to reforming research assessment globally, and how we can move from acknowledging the need for change towards actually implementing and monitoring new assessment formats. The panel will also look at intersections with other policy domains, discussing how advances in open science and research assessment reform can, together, enable high-quality, accessible, and impactful research. Additionally, it will discuss what success looks like for new assessment formats and the reform on the whole. Lastly, the panel will look at how researchers themselves view these vital changes.
Building on survey findings, expert insights, and interactive discussions, the panel will include opening statements from Zoé Ancion (French National Research Agency, ANR), Kelly Cobey (University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Canada), Una Farr (Springer Nature), Elizabeth Gadd (Loughborough University, United Kingdom), Alex Rushforth (Centre for Science and Technology Studies, CWTS) and Bregt Saenen (Science Europe). Chaired by James Morris (Science Europe), these contributions will be followed by an interactive debate and conversation between attendees and discussants. The panel aims to inspire a collaborative dialogue between the policy communities and practitioners driving research assessment reform: asking how we can work together in a more integrated way, and what successful reform will ultimately look like.
Springer Nature conducted a recent survey to understand current research assessment practices and researchers' preferences for the future. This talk will present key findings from the responses of over 6,600 researchers globally, covering all continents, career stages, and disciplines.
Long abstract
The landscape of research assessment is undergoing significant transformation, driven by a growing recognition of the limitations of traditional metrics and the need for more comprehensive evaluation frameworks - recognising both researchers’ broader activities beyond publications, as well as the positive contributions their research makes to society.
As a signatory of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), Springer Nature has long advocated for a balanced approach to research evaluation. To help drive this dialogue forward, we conducted a survey to better understand existing assessment practices and to explore researchers’ preferences for future evaluation methods. The survey captured responses from over 6,600 researchers globally, representing all continents, career stages and disciplines.
This talk will present key findings from the survey, including:
- What types of research evaluation researchers experience and participate in.
- Their perceptions of current assessment practices, including the balance between metrics and qualitative assessment, and the weighting of different evaluation criteria.
Una Farr (Springer Nature)
Elizabeth Gadd (Loughborough University)
James Morris (Science Europe)
Bregt Saenen (Science Europe)
Karen Stroobants (CultureBase Consulting)
Kelly Cobey (University of Ottawa Heart Institute)
Ed Gerstner (Springer Nature)
Elizabeth Gadd (Loughborough University)
Alex Rushforth (Leiden University)
Bregt Saenen (Science Europe)
Short Abstract
This panel takes a deep dive into research assessment reform and its interconnections with other policy priorities. With survey findings, expert insights, and interactive discussions, it will explore reform challenges, methods of evaluating progress, and how researchers can shape vital change.
Long Abstract
This panel takes a deep dive into research assessment reform and its interconnections. It will address current challenges to reforming research assessment globally, and how we can move from acknowledging the need for change towards actually implementing and monitoring new assessment formats. The panel will also look at intersections with other policy domains, discussing how advances in open science and research assessment reform can, together, enable high-quality, accessible, and impactful research. Additionally, it will discuss what success looks like for new assessment formats and the reform on the whole. Lastly, the panel will look at how researchers themselves view these vital changes.
Building on survey findings, expert insights, and interactive discussions, the panel will include opening statements from Zoé Ancion (French National Research Agency, ANR), Kelly Cobey (University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Canada), Una Farr (Springer Nature), Elizabeth Gadd (Loughborough University, United Kingdom), Alex Rushforth (Centre for Science and Technology Studies, CWTS) and Bregt Saenen (Science Europe). Chaired by James Morris (Science Europe), these contributions will be followed by an interactive debate and conversation between attendees and discussants. The panel aims to inspire a collaborative dialogue between the policy communities and practitioners driving research assessment reform: asking how we can work together in a more integrated way, and what successful reform will ultimately look like.
Accepted paper
Session 1 Wednesday 2 July, 2025, -