The updated user guide takes into account the new recommendations for responsible research assessment and prohibit the use of the Publication Forum classification in the evaluation of individual researchers.
The Publication Forum steering group has updated the user guide for the Publication Forum classification. The updated user guide more explicitly prohibit the use of the classification in the evaluation of individual researchers, such as in recruitment or rewarding. The classification should also not be used, for example, as a criterion for approving publications in dissertations.
- Employers and funders should not use the JUFO classification (or other channel-specific indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor) in researcher assessments. In addition, employers and funders must forbid reviewers from taking this information into account in researcher assessments and researchers must be forbidden from incorporating this information in any form into their applications or publication lists.
- Evaluators should not take into account the JUFO classification (or other channel-specific indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor) in the researcher assessment.
- Researchers should not include the JUFO classification of their publications (or other channel-specific indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor) in any form in their applications or publication lists.
The updated guidelines also take into account the national recommendation for responsible evaluation of researcher published after the previous update, as well as the international Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (pdf). According to the national recommendation, evaluations should primarily be based on the scientific content of the research, and research metrics can be used responsibly to support the assessment. The international agreement on reforming research assessment also requires abandoning “inappropriate uses in research assessment of journal- and publication-based metrics”.
The Publication Forum operates under the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV). TSV has signed the international Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and joined the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), which promotes the implementation of the agreement. The update of the Publication Forum classification user guide is part of TSV's CoARA action plan, and its goal is to promote the implementation of CoARA's third core commitment.
Image: Ylanite Koppens, Pexels (modified)
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