The analysis of different criteria and tools for the assessment of research is one of the major proposals introduced by Open Science.
Traditional metrics make use of bibliometric indicators referred to restrictive documentary categories as distributed at the commercial level. Open Science promotes the complementary use of alternative metrics, as those named usage metrics to quantify the number of visualization or downloads received by a research product, as well as the altmetrics, which take into account citations, comments, tweets, and opinions of the readers.
The new research scenarios foresee the extension of the evaluation of research to include documentary categories currently non disseminated and not accessible, as well as channels for a faster and more efficient dissemination, making use of such tools as repositories or new generation infrastructures for supporting each component of the research process.
Open Science proposes and support more open and interactive forms of peer-review, where the concept of "openness" is broader and includes platforms, documentation and the identity of the participants to the evaluation process.
International initiatives supporting new assessment parameters of the scientific production
The DORA Declaration provides recommendations to funding agencies, institutions, publishers, organizations supplying metrics, and to researchers; it underlines the need of avoiding the use of indicators like the IF, instead considering the intrinsic value rather than the journal, and taking vantage of the opportunities provided by new digital indicators.
The Leiden Manifesto contains 10 principles indicating possible solutions to the issues created by the inappropriate introduction of Bibliometrics, and suggests the usage of valid statistics along with a correct evaluation of the objectives and the nature of the research assessed.
Science in Transition Position paper highlights the continuous growth of exchanges in scientific information out of the traditional channels and documentation (e.g. journals and books), preferring more informal, fast and open modalities and self-production systems like blogs and microblogs.
The Metric Tide examines the role of metrics in the evaluation and management of the research in the British system, emphasizing the limits of the quantitative measures and indicating peer review as the only possible yardstick. The report lists a series of recommendations for the design of metrics based on robustness, humility, transparency, diversity, and reflexivity.