How does research assessment work?
As a researcher, your work will be assessed in a variety of ways, for example:
- academic assessment of your first year report and final PhD thesis
- when you apply for funding for particular projects
- if you compete for prizes and awards
- in applying for jobs and grants after your PhD
In the past, most of your prestige as a researcher may have come from your publications. The culture of 'publish or perish' raised concerns because it put excessive weight on a single aspect of research. The incentives did not necessarily lead to the very best research, as findings were 'salami sliced' to get more publications out, and time-consuming reproducible research was not supported. Worse of all, in some areas the hyper-focus on publications and competition put too much pressure on researchers and impacted their well-being.
That's not to say publications are not important! They are still a critical way to document your research and progress your career. When done well, publications are an important currency of research, allowing researchers to build on previous work. But institutions and funders are now thinking more critically about how researchers are evaluated.
DORA
Cambridge signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), committing to a fair way to assess research. Journal prestige is not a good metric to make decisions for promotions and hiring. Instead, a variety of metrics and qualitative criteria will be used, in ways appropriate to each discipline.
This makes us part of a growing number of organisations in the UK and worldwide that are committed to recognising all aspects of a researcher's contribution. Datasets, policy impact, collaborations and other outputs should be taken into account alongside publications.
This is an important step for the University, particularly for early career researchers where all too often career progression is based on judgments using flawed metrics. By signing DORA the University is making very positive step towards developing a culture where research excellence is assessed by the quality of the work and not by the title of the Journal where it is published.
- Prof. Steve Russell, Professor of Genome Biology, chair the DORA Working Group, July 2019
Narrative CVs
The UK research councils have introduced a new Resume for Researchers (R4R) in 2021. The new R4R, which can be used in grant applications, asks researchers to highlight their contributions to the three areas of research, teams and wider society. If you were filling one in, you may mention not only the big research paper you have just published, but also how you have mentored a junior lab member, and how you delivered a workshop in local schools. The hope is that this more holistic assessment tool allows researchers to develop as well-rounded professionals.
At Cambridge, we are exploring how narrative CVs like the R4R would work in practice. As you are learning in this section of camGuides, there are lots of opportunities to develop the skills you need.
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Image credits
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