Wiley Signs Declaration on Research Assessment, improves commitment to responsible research evaluation

    Global research and education leader Wiley today announced it has signed the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which is a world-wide initiative designed to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. 

    As the publisher of nearly 2,000 academic journals, Wiley will deliver more ways to assess and recognize research outputs, which in turn supports healthy scholarship and allows more researchers to thrive in their careers. To this end, Wiley will roll out a broad range of journal and article metrics across its journal portfolio with the aim of providing a holistic, well-rounded view of the value and impact of any author’s research. This includes metrics that measure levels of impact beyond citation value, including usage, re-use, reproducibility, peer review assessment, geographic reach, and public recognition via references in media outlets.

    “There should be appropriate and diverse means of recognition for every piece of research that adds educational value, adds to the body of knowledge, and supports reproducibility, to become the foundation of future discovery,” said Liz Ferguson, Senior Vice President, Wiley Research Publishing. “At Wiley, researchers are at the heart of everything we do, and we aim to support equitable systems of advancement and reward for our authors across all disciplines.”

    “I welcome Wiley’s decision to sign DORA, a clear signal of its support for responsible research assessment practices. Publishers are very influential players in the scholarly ecosystem and I look forward to seeing how Wiley’s implementation of the DORA recommendations will positively impact both the company and the academic community it serves,” said Dr. Stephen Curry, DORA Chair.

    This announcement builds on Wiley’s commitment to responsible research assessment. Wiley is a long-term participant in the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), which makes all reference or citation metadata publicly available. This practice supports discovery, use, citation, and re-use thereby increasing the recognition and impact of an author’s work.

    Approximately 200 Wiley journals enable the CRediT taxonomy, which acknowledges individual author contributions. In recent years, Wiley has rolled out Altmetric scores across the majority of its journal portfolio and is currently piloting the scite smart citation badge on over 115 journals.