Responsible Metrics for the Assessment of Research Organizations

While the more recent initiatives for responsible research assessment, such as CoARA, primarily focus on two evaluation contexts, the assessment of researchers in their careers and of their proposals for project funding, organizational-level assessment is not as much discussed as it was ten years ago in relation to the Leiden Manifesto and the Metric Tide report. Organizational-level research assessment is traditionally where professional and science-based evaluative bibliometrics has contributed the most. This paper argues for a more systematic engagement with organizational research assessment within the ongoing reform of research assessment. Other factors are creating the opportunity to move in this direction: There is a general shift towards organizational evaluation in research assessment. There is also increasing availability of new diverse data on research activities produced by the global scientific publishing system. A third factor is an ongoing project organized the international RoRI institute in London which aims to create a global overview of national systems for assessment and funding of research organizations. Finally, we think it is time to appreciate that bibliometrics is not only involved in research assessment but also contributes to the science of science, thereby in turn laying the foundation for a proper understanding and assessment of institutionalized science.