Responsible research assessment faces the acid test

The University of Liverpool is planning to make lay-offs on the basis of controversial measures. How should the global movement for responsible research respond?

A leading UK university has become mired in a public dispute over how it is assessing researchers’ performance. The evolving situation at the University of Liverpool is being watched closely by concerned academics around the world — and is raising questions about whether more needs to be done to ensure that universities assess their researchers equitably. At the end of last month, the leaders of some of the world’s foremost responsible-research initiatives — the Hong Kong Principles, the INORMS Research Evaluation Group, the Leiden Manifesto and the Metric Tide — wrote a strongly worded letter arguing that the University of Liverpool’s proposals remain “squarely out of line with accepted practice”.

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