Quality not quantity – Measuring the impact of research

Quality not quantity – Measuring the impact of research

Snippets from Warwick Anderson:

 Now more than a decade old, open access is changing where researchers publish and, more importantly, how the wider world accesses – and assesses – their work.

The open access movement is having a significant impact too on how we measure the impact of scientific research.
 
The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, which has now been signed by thousands of individual researchers and organisations, come out with such a strong statement earlier this year:
“Do not use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion or funding decisions.”

Nothing stays the same in science and research. Publishing is set to change further. The democratisation of publishing began with the internet and has a long way yet to run. The challenge for researchers, institutions and funders will be to identify, protect and encourage quality and integrity.
 
 Warwick Anderson is professor and CEO at the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia. This article, “Quality not quantity: Measuring the impact of published research”, was originally published on 18 September in The Conversation. Read the original article.