Tracking Research Objects Levelling the playing field in research assessment

Case study presentations by Esther and Meron on 22 October 2024 for the Open Science Festival session, round 4 of the parallel sessions. Abstract: Including Open Science practices in the evaluation of researcher performance is currently a contested subject within academia and a topic on the agenda of several initiatives already that try to change research assessment (such as COARA, Adore declaration, DORA, Recognition & Rewards, and Hidden REF). Although many researchers contribute to their field of expertise in a multitude of manners, the most stringent criteria of success is the number of research articles published. Subverting the current “publish or perish” culture requires a novel approach to the assessment of research objects (such as software, data and methods) other than research articles. Appropriate tracking of research objects is a prerequisite for their assessment. However, despite infrastructure already being available to track research objects (such as the Research Software Directory) there is currently no standardised way to track and subsequently assess such research objects. This session aims to provide an overview of some of the existing developments and case studies (~20 minutes), as well as to provide a space to discuss our needs and requirements regarding the tracking of research objects (~40 minutes). This includes discussing questions such as: Should we track research objects or has this the risk to reinforce the publish or perish culture? Are there any examples in the Netherlands where tracking of research objects have been successful? Can tracking of research objects incentivize researchers to share their research outputs in accordance with the FAIR principles, or do we need other tools? What technological infrastructure would be needed to effectively track research objects - Are there existing tools that can be adapted for this purpose? How can we balance quantitative and qualitative metrics in the evaluation of research objects? How can tracking research objects promote equity and inclusion within the research community? Please bring your examples, recommended practices and questions (and answers!) to the session! Session page: https://opensciencefestival.nl/en/programme/tracking-research-objects-levelling-the-playing-field-in-research-assessment