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Various symbols and photos from research depicted in a cloud against a black background. © UA Ruhr
Joined the network

Evaluating research performance fairly together

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  • UA Ruhr
  • Research
This is a representative photo for various research areas. It shows a collage of a microscope, books and a pipette. © Katja Marquard​/​Ruhr University Bochum
Research can take many forms. If you want to assess its quality, you have to take this diversity into account.
The University Alliance Ruhr is now a member of the international Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment. Together, the partners are campaigning for a reform of the assessment of research performance.

What characterizes good research? So far, numbers have often been the answer to this question. But they alone are not enough. The criteria should be adapted more closely to the changing requirements and conditions of research itself. The University Alliance Ruhr is now also committed to this. At the beginning of the year, the university alliance joined the international Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) network. Ruhr University Bochum had already joined at the end of 2023 and TU Dortmund University in spring 2024.

CoARA aims to reform the standards by which research performance is assessed. Qualitative rather than quantitative factors are to play a greater role than in the past. The UA Ruhr has also joined the National Chapter Germany of CoARA. The National Chapter serves as a forum for the discussion and coordination of CoARA matters that are specific to the German research landscape.


Differentiate much more precisely
The UA Ruhr is represented in the CoARA network by the Rector of Ruhr Unversity Bochum, Prof. Dr. Martin Paul, as Legal Representative. Together with his colleague Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert from the University of Duisburg-Essen and his colleague Prof. Dr. Manfred Bayer from the TU Dortmund University, he emphasizes the importance of the network: "Together, we are committed to modernizing research assessment. A much more precise differentiation must be made when assessing scientific achievements, especially with regard to different disciplinary cultures. As the University Alliance Ruhr, we will therefore participate in a thorough review of existing procedures."


Establishing new principles
The institutions that have joined CoARA undertake to evaluate research achievements at their own institution in a much more nuanced way in future. This includes, for example, recognizing that there is a diversity of research contributions and scientific careers that depend on the framework conditions of the respective research environment. The inappropriate use of publication indicators such as the journal impact factor and the so-called h-index should be avoided. Overall, the changes are aimed at a responsible use of quantitative measures, while a qualitative assessment based on peer review comes into focus.

Like all other signatory institutions, the UA Ruhr also undertakes to regularly provide evidence of the progress it has made in the review, development and evaluation of criteria, instruments and processes. This is to take place for the first time within five years of joining CoARA.

About CoARA
The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment was founded in 2022 by over 350 organizations from 40 countries with the aim of reforming the evaluation of scientific careers and achievements. Over 800 institutions worldwide have now joined, 42 of them in Germany.

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