In modern research management the limitations of traditional citation-based metrics are well understood, and there is demand within the sector for more ‘responsible’ metrics to inform policy and decision making. The open metrics lab aims to enable practical tests and experimentation with open metrics to support these goals.
Project aims
In particular, the objectives are to:
- Contribute to new forms of research indicators by facilitating experimentation with new and more open ways of creating them
- Develop a ‘platform’ for supporting and hosting new metrics experiments providing where possible the data, processing and analysis tools
- Foster a community of researchers, domain experts and policy makers in the area of open metrics
- Gather evidence from the experiments and community discussions to help inform emerging national actions around open metrics
What we're working on
Experiments
Practical tests and experiments proposing and/or trying out new open research indicators, producing prototypes or demonstrators.
Research
PhD research at the Open University contributing to the development of new (more open) research indicators for research assessment.
Supporting materials
A briefing paper on the ‘complexities of citations’ by Cameron Neylon to support research funders and researchers in better understanding the assumptions and limits of existing citation-based metrics via a deeper understanding of citation (and associated scholarly practice). The paper will also support the development of more reliable ways to assess the value of research for the purposes of evaluation, strategy and policy.
