April 3, 2018. – The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has signed on to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which recommends changes in practices by the research community regarding the use of research metrics.
Research metrics (or bibliometrics) are a variety of techniques that provide a statistical analysis of publications’ use, and which are regularly referred to by the various stakeholders in the scholarly research community for assessing research impact.
First launched in 2013, the DORA declaration recognizes that research metrics can be useful for gauging certain types of contributions, but that they also have inherent limitations. The declaration recommends changes and alternatives to the use of research metrics by funding agencies, institutions, researches, journals, publishers, and organizations that assess and provide metrics. DORA currently counts over 450 organizational signatories and nearly 12,000 endorsements from individuals.
[2018.04.04 — This press release originally stated that “nearly 1,200 endorsements from individuals.” This has been updated to the correct figure of “nearly 12,000.”]
-30-
CARL members include Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries as well as two national libraries. Enhancing research and higher education are at the heart of its mission. CARL develops the capacity to support this mission, promotes effective and sustainable scholarly communication, and public policy that enables broad access to scholarly information.
For more information:
Lise Brin, Program Officer
902.318.4485
