Spain wants to change how it evaluates scientists—and end the ‘dictatorship of papers’
Officials aim to use wider range of research outputs to assess researchers at public universities
29 Nov 2023
Spain’s much-maligned system for evaluating scientists, in which the sole criterion for career advancement is the publication of papers, is set to be overhauled under new proposals from the country’s National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ANECA).
The reforms, announced earlier this month, would for the first time see researchers at Spain’s public universities evaluated on a range of outputs besides papers, and would also encourage the distribution of findings via open-access platforms. Many scientists are welcoming the move, saying it will help academia move on from a system that has been described as establishing a “dictatorship of papers.”
Currently, ANECA assesses the “research performance” of academics every 6 years. To win a modest salary increase and be eligible for promotion, researchers must show that they have published a minimum of five papers during that period in high-impact journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR), a database produced by the publishing analytics company Clarivate. Meeting the goal also enables scientists to supervise doctoral students and be listed as principal investigators at their universities, which gives them access to a larger budget.
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https://www.science.org/content/article/spain-wants-change-how-it-evaluates-scientists-and-end-dictatorship-papers
