The Open Knowledge Foundation has joined nearly 300 organizations in signing The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

The laudable aim of DORA is to get people to stop using the Journal Impact Factor for research evaluation exercises, as it is harmful to science, and statistically illiterate to do so.

The General Recommendation says:

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.

There are also helpful, specific recommendations for funding agencies, institutions, publishers, organizations that supply metrics, and researchers.

Over 7,000 individuals have signed so far, and among the many other organizations to have signed there are a multitude of notable ones including: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Wellcome Trust,
Proceedings of The National Academy Of Sciences (PNAS), EMBO, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Genetics Society of America, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Society of Biology, Ubiquity Press, Austrian Science Fund (FWF), International Association for Plant Taxonomy, Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik, Museu Nacional (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), Belgian Royal Society of Zoology and Belgian Journal of Zoology, Universidade de Brasilia, UCSD, Sao Paulo University…

We expect this campaign to be a success, and hope that the commercial journals and societies that have actively chosen not to sign DORA will nevertheless consider the merits of DORA.