Research evaluation should be pragmatic, not a choice between peer review and metrics

Responding to the growing momentum of movements, such as DORA and CoARA, Giovanni Abramo argues for a more nuanced balance between the use of metrics and peer review in research assessment.

PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships in Ireland

This guide will help you find the right PhD and explain what doing a PhD is actually like. They provide a wide range of advice on postgraduate research and funding.

Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme

The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme is an established national initiative, funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, and managed by the Council. A new national research agency, Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland, has been established by the government. The agency will amalgamate the work of the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland. The full operation of Taighde Éireann will be enabled over the coming period.

How and why do the life sciences cite social sciences?

Which is more challenging: developing a vaccine for an unforeseen pandemic in under a year, or convincing people to take it? A lesson from COVID-19 is that both the development and adoption of science can be equally challenging. From research to solution, societal factors lie in the last mile, capable of either facilitating or hindering the problem-solving power of science. Scholarly understanding of society, the realm of the social sciences, can complement life sciences by re-embedding biological entities into societal structures and navigating public acceptance of innovations.

World University Rankings 2023

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date. The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The Metric Tide Revisited

As part of FRAP (The Future Research Assessment Programme), an expert panel has been invited to lead a review of the role of metrics in research management and assessment. This review, 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 to: Revisit the conclusions and recommendations of the last detailed review of these questions, The Metric Tide (2015), and assess progress against these. Consider whether developments over recent years in the infrastructures, methodologies and uses of research metrics negate or change any of those 2015 conclusions or suggest additional priorities. and look afresh at the role of metrics in any future research excellence framework and consider whether design changes now under consideration as part of the FRAP suggest similar or different conclusions to those reached in 2015. The review was conducted over the Summer, and will be completed mid-September so we await with interest the published outcome.

What lies ahead for research assessment reforms in Europe?

In June 2022, the Council of the European Union gave the green light for a European Agreement on research assessment reforms to go ahead. Plans for this initiative were proposed in a European Commission scoping report in 2021. Under the Agreement, research actors across European member states (including research performing organizations, funders, and national or regional assessment organizations) will be invited to sign up voluntarily and pledge their commitment to translate principles outlined in the report into local assessment reforms. Read the full post here.

New Funding of €1.725 Million Positions Ireland to Lead in Open Research

A significant pool of funding has been designated to ramp up Ireland’s progress in implementing an open research ecosystem. This funding marks Ireland’s first national budget aimed at dramatically improving the pathways for sharing research, and building transparent practices into the very fabric of scientific discovery. The funding of €1.725 million from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has been announced by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, to support the activities of the National Open Research Forum (NORF) and has been allocated to the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to distribute to key initiatives identified by the NORF.

Altmetrics Explorer now available in MU

Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics. They can include (but are not limited to) peer reviews on Faculty of 1000, citations on Wikipedia and in public policy documents, discussions on research blogs, mainstream media coverage, bookmarks on reference managers like Mendeley, and mentions on social networks such as Twitter. Sourced from the Web, Altmetrics can tell you a lot about how often journal articles and other scholarly outputs like datasets are discussed and used around the world. For that reason, altmetrics have been incorporated into researchers’ websites, institutional repositories, journal websites, and more. Altmetrics Explorer is an intuitive platform that enables you to monitor the online activity surrounding academic research. Browse by author, group or department for your own institution, benchmark against peer organizations, report on the outcomes of outreach activity, and integrate the insights the data provides into evaluation and review processes. To find out how to register for a Altmetrics Explorer account and to find out how to use Altmetrics Explorer to monitor engagement with your research papers, and showcase your influence check out the guide here

Resources and tools to assist you in finding funding and managing the end to end Research Grant Lifecycle.

This useful guide from the MU Research Development Office will bring you through the process of finding funding, preparing your proposal, preparing your budget and compliance.

Now available in MU, EndNoteX20 is the latest version of EndNote Desktop which supercedes the version currently available in MU, EndNoteX9. It features a new interface design, improved PDF reading, new workflow enhancements and new options for detecting duplicates If you are an existing user you can upgrade to EndNoteX20 via AppsAnywhere If you are a new user, download EndNoteX20 from AppsAnywhere To see whats new in EndNoteX20 check out the guide EndNoteX20 For queries contact the Research Support Librarian ciaran.quinn@mu.ie