Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A signatory removes university-ranking criteria from its strategic plan, citing the Agreement's commitment to abandon inappropriate use of rankings.
- Is an instance
A signatory replaces an h-index threshold in promotion criteria with a narrative CV and structured qualitative review, publishing an implementation timeline as required.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A signatory continues to require a minimum h-index for chair appointments while publicly citing the Agreement.
- Not an instance
A signatory issues a press release announcing signature but produces no internal implementation plan or self-reported progress evaluation.
Editorial commentary
The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment was finalised in July 2022 by the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), following a consultation involving more than 350 organisations across Europe and beyond. Signing the Agreement is the act of becoming a CoARA member; the Agreement’s text is the shared statement of intent that membership commits an organisation to.
What it commits signatories to
The Agreement’s core vision is that research assessment should recognise diverse outputs, practices and activities; be based primarily on qualitative judgement, supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators; abandon inappropriate uses of journal- and publication-based metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor and h-index in individual assessment; and avoid the use of institutional rankings in research assessment. It translates this vision into ten reform commitments covering criteria, procedures and culture, plus four enabling commitments covering how signatories organise, resource and coordinate the reform work itself. Signatories carry these out over a self-set five-year timeline and self-report progress rather than undergoing external audit.
How it differs from DORA and the Leiden Manifesto
DORA, signed since 2012, is narrower and older: it targets journal-level metric misuse specifically and can be signed by individuals as well as institutions, with no reporting cycle attached. The Leiden Manifesto is a set of ten authorship principles, not a signable commitment at all. CoARA is the most institutionally structured of the three — membership, a defined timeline, and self-reported progress evaluations distinguish it from both. In practice the three are frequently cited together and are not competing frameworks: an institution can be a DORA signatory, cite the Leiden Manifesto in its evaluation guidance, and be a CoARA member simultaneously, and many are.
References
- coara.eu/agreement. European Commission, 2022. Science Europe technical briefing on the Agreement.
Also known as
Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment · ARRA
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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