EUA Expert voices | Overcoming the journal impact factor and transforming research assessment, a perspective from the Open University of Catalonia

The Open University of Catalonia is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The university’s DORA Working Group explains how by becoming a signatory, the university is now working towards a fresh approach to research assessment.

Most universities and quality agencies still use the journal impact factor, first and foremost, to assess the quality of research. It is applied to evaluate the productivity of researchers or research groups, as well as to award accreditations, promotions or funding.

However, many scientists, departments and international institutions publicly criticise how these types of assessment policies are flimsy, simplistic and even prevent the preservation of epistemic diversity and scientific pluralism. Research quality cannot be measured by such an indicator. Ever more often, we hear voices argue that research is about much more than the journals and that publishing cannot be the main and only motive for research. Impact factor journals must not become simply a mechanism for rewards.

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This criticism is gaining ground as the world is facing bigger and more complicated global challenges, many linked to in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, and not all solutions are in view. If researchers are asked to simply meet the impact factor criteria set by quality agencies, knowledge generation will become more and more a race in which the role of society and the contribution to social transformation is clearly minimised.