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The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is a consortium of organisations committed to reforming the methods and processes used to evaluate research, researchers, and research organisations. Current research assessment practices often rely heavily on publication-based metrics, such as citation counts. However, these indicators provide only a partial picture of the wide range of activities, outputs, and contributions generated by researchers.

More than 800 research funding organisations, research-performing institutions, assessment agencies and professional societies are now part of CoARA. Together, they have agreed on a shared direction and guiding principles for implementing reforms in the assessment of research, researchers, and research organisations.

To join CoARA, organisations must sign the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA). Published on 20 July 2022, the ARRA sets out key principles and ten core commitments to guide the reform of research evaluation practices.

CoARA represents an important step towards fairer and more innovative research assessment, with potentially significant impacts on the future of academic research.

The ARRA’s ten commitments

By signing the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA), participating institutions commit to progressively implementing the following ten commitments:

1. Recognise the diversity of research contributions and research careers, taking into account the needs and specificities of each discipline.
2. Base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation, with peer review at its core, supported by the responsible and informed use of quantitative indicators.
3. Discontinue the inappropriate use of journal- and publication-based metrics in research assessment, particularly the misuse of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and h-index.
4. Avoid using rankings of research organisations in research assessment.
5. Commit the necessary resources to achieving the organisational changes required for reforming research assessment.
6. Review and further develop criteria, tools, and processes for assessing both research and the individuals who conduct it, engaging researchers directly in this work.
7. Raise awareness of research assessment reform and ensure transparent communication, guidance, and training on assessment criteria, processes, and their appropriate use.
8. Exchange practices and experiences to foster mutual learning within and beyond the Coalition.
9. Communicate progress on adherence to the principles and implementation of the commitments.
10. Evaluate practices, criteria, and tools based on solid evidence and on the state of the art in meta-research, making data openly available to support evidence gathering and research.