As part of FRAP, an expert panel has been invited to lead a review of the role of metrics in research management and assessment.
The Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) is led by the four UK higher education funding bodies.
Tightly-defined objectives
This review, The Metric Tide Revisited, will take a short, sharp, evidence-informed look at current and potential uses of metrics against a set of tightly-defined objectives to:
- revisit the conclusions and recommendations of the last detailed review of these questions, The Metric Tide (2015), and assess progress against these
- consider whether developments over recent years in the infrastructures, methodologies and uses of research metrics negate or change any of those 2015 conclusions or suggest additional priorities
- look afresh at the role of metrics in any future research excellence framework and consider whether design changes now under consideration as part of the FRAP suggest similar or different conclusions to those reached in 2015
- offer updated advice to UK Research and Innovation and the UK’s higher education funding bodies on the most effective ways of supporting and incentivising responsible research assessment and responsible uses of metrics.
Timings and panel members
The Metric Tide Revisited will be a rapid review over a four-month period from mid-May to mid-September 2022.
It will be led by a three-person expert panel, with support from the FRAP team.
The panel includes:
- Stephen Curry: Professor of Structural Biology and Assistant Provost for equality, diversity and inclusion at Imperial College London, and Chair of the Declaration on Research Assessment steering committee. He was a steering group member and co-author of ‘The Metric Tide’ in 2015.
- Dr Elizabeth Gadd: Research Policy Manager, Loughborough University and Chair of the International Network of Research Management Societies, Research Evaluation Group
- James Wilsdon: Digital Science Professor of Research Policy at the University of Sheffield and Director of the Research on Research Institute. He was the review Chair and co-author of ‘The Metric Tide’ in 2015 and is a founding member of the Forum for Responsible Research Metrics (FRRM).
Encouraging contributions
The panel is keen to encourage contributions from the wider community and will organise a series of roundtables to invite formal inputs from experts and key stakeholder groups. The series will be held in June and July 2022.
These will include:
- researchers across disciplines and career stages
- scientometricians
- metrics providers
- higher education institution leaders and research managers
- publishers
- librarians
- learned societies
- research funders
- infrastructure providers.
The panel will also liaise closely with FRRM as a source of informal review and oversight.