EMBO research integrity workshops
Opportunities to discuss responsible research practice and policy
Opportunities to discuss responsible research practice and policy
A discussion of recent work to build research integrity across borders and an editorial toolkit for corrections and retractions
A new EMBO policy report explores options for coordinating approaches to the governance of research integrity in Europe.
Meeting of the Strategic Installation Grants Committee, Hinxton/UK, 2019
EMBO engages in policy work on research assessment and its impact on evaluations of scientists and their work. Fair assessment of applications and project proposals can be compromised through the inappropriate use of quantitative indicators such as publications metrics or through biases. We foster the sharing of best practices for conducting research assessments, and initiatives for improving them.
EMBO is a founding member of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a global initiative to advance practical approaches to research and researcher assessment across all scholarly disciplines.
Since the Declaration’s publication in 2013, DORA has transformed from a call to action into an active initiative. EMBO actively supports DORA.
Bernd Pulverer, Head of EMBO Scientific Publishing, serves on DORA’s Steering Committee.
To celebrate DORA’s 10th anniversary EMBO and EMBL have organized a joint panel session: Exploring best practices in research assessment: EMBO, EMBL and DORA, on 12 May 2023.
EMBO has reinforced its commitment to improving research assessment by signing the Agreement to Reform Research Assessment, drawn up by the Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) in January 2023. EMBO has formed an internal working group to review its research assessment processes and ensure they are in line with the commitments of the agreement.
Examples of EMBO policies and initiatives for its funding schemes that align with the DORA aims and recommendations:
1. DORA general recommendation: Do not use journal-based metrics as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess individual researchers or funding decisions:
2. DORA recommendation 2 (for funders): Be explicit about the criteria used:
3. DORA recommendation 3: Consider the value and impact of all research outputs:
4. DORA on openness: “Open scholarship allows access to works through various platforms, not only journals, and so facilitates evaluation of works on its own merit.”, from https://sfdora.org/2020/08/18/the-intersections-between-dora-open-scholarship-and-equity/:
5. DORA has discussed the use of narrative CVs as a qualitative method for research assessment, for their potential to support a research culture that emphasizes meaningful research achievements over the use of flawed proxy measures of quality:
6. DORA is advocating for a more inclusive academic community, and supports practices that address structural inequalities in academia, e.g. where there are measures to mitigate bias:
7. Transparency:
The names of the selection committee members are published on the EMBO website, as well as the selection criteria for each funding scheme: https://www.embo.org/funding/fellowships-grants-and-career-support/
8. Other efforts toward responsible research assessment:
Training in research integrity:
Peer review, both for grantmaking and for scientific publishing, is the cornerstone of quality control in science. Researchers carry out this activity as part of their contributions to scientific research. EMBO is driving discussions on how to recognize peer review in the assessment of researchers.
Most recently, EMBO has engaged in recognizing peer review for preprints, in a meeting co-organized with HHMI and ASAPbio Recognizing Preprint Peer Review , 1-2 December 2022. The meeting was covered in an article in Science.
EMBO organizes and leads sessions at international conferences on issues relating to research assessment and peer review.
Exploring best practices in research assessment: EMBO, EMBL and DORA, 12 May 2023 a hybrid panel session to present and discuss funders’, institutes’ and publishers’ initiatives to honour the DORA principles.
Recognizing Preprint Peer Review, a meeting co-organized with HHMI and ASAPbio, 1-2 December 2022. The meeting was covered in an article in Science.
Experiments in evaluation: lessons from randomisation in research funding. An SNSF, EMBO & RoRI virtual workshop
1 and 2 December 2021
Understanding peer review and government grant selection process, 6th Annual LymeMIND conference, 23 October, 2021. Video of the session
Setting Positive Incentives in Research Assessment: How to align criteria with research integrity principles, ENRIO 2021 Congress on Research Integrity Practice, 27-29 September 2021
Emerging Trends at the Intersection of Research Publishing, Open Science, and Academic Reward and Recognition Systems, CellBio2020 Virtual Meeting, 2 December 2020
Addressing Roadblocks in Research Assessment Reform, EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), 3 September 2020
How to Improve Research Assessment during the Triage Phase of Application Review, ASCB | EMBO Meeting, December 2019
EMBO is part of the Open Science task force of the Initiative for Science in Europe, which published the report “Centrality of researchers in reforming research assessment – Routes to improve research by aligning rewards with Open Science practices” in February 2022
EMBO is a partner in RoRI, an international consortium of funders, universities and technologists. The group uses evidence-based approaches to experimentation to improve the way research is funded, practised, and evaluated to ensure that it benefits more people.
The EMBO Policy Programme is involved in the RoRI workstream on randomisation.
Read the The experimental research funder’s handbook produced by EMBO with RoRI, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) at Nesta.
On the 10th anniversary of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), six panellists reviewed the initiative’s impact on the way research is assessed
Just over five years ago, EMBO was one of the original signatories of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment.