The UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics
Championing the use of responsible metrics in UK higher education and across the research community.
About the Forum
In 2015 an independent review panel published The Metric Tide report. It provided 20 specific recommendations for action on the role of metrics in research assessment and management. Bringing together a group of research funders, sector bodies, and infrastructure experts, the Forum for Responsible Research Metrics was born.
The Forum provides:
- Advice to the higher education funding bodies on quantitative indicators in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
- Advice on, and work to improve, the data infrastructure that underpins metric use
- Advocacy and leadership on the use of research metrics responsibly
- International engagement on the use of metrics in research and researcher assessment
Read the terms of reference (pdf) or find out more about the Forum's membership.
Defining responsible metrics
Metrics form part of an evolving and increasingly digital research environment, where data and analysis are important. However, the current description, production, and use of these metrics are experimental and open to misunderstanding. They can lead to negative effects and behaviours as well as positive ones.
Responsible metrics can be defined by:
Robustness – basing metrics on the best possible data in terms of accuracy and scope.
Humility – recognising that quantitative evaluation should support, but not supplant, qualitative, expert assessment.
Transparency – that those being evaluated can test and verify the results.
Diversity – accounting for variation by research field, and using a range of indicators to reflect and support a plurality of research and researcher career paths across the system.
Reflexivity – recognising and anticipating the systemic and potential effects of indicators, and updating them in response.
Progress so far
From advising on the REF 2021 to facilitating discussions on the culture and use of research metrics in UK institutions, find out what the Forum has achieved since 2016 and its aims for the future.
Metrics and the REF 2021
The Forum advised on the quantitative indicators for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 environment and the standardised measures of impact.
- Read the Forum's advice to the REF 2021 panels on impact and environment indicators (pdf)
- Read the Forum's advice on metrics' use in the REF (pdf)
The UK higher education funding bodies have invited the Forum to lead a review of the role of metrics in research management and assessment for the Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP), which aims to explore possible new approaches to the assessment of UK higher education research performance.
This new review, called 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. Find out more about reviewing the role of metrics in research assessment during FRAP.
