HEFCE’s “Forum for the Responsible Use of Metrics” currently have open a survey for institutions (one response per institution is required) to find out how institutions are implementing policies on the responsible use of metrics:
Responses will be used in order to develop advice to the sector on practical ways to implement the culture of responsible research metrics using the principles/frameworks outlined above. It will also inform any recommendations the Forum makes to UKRI. Based on the responses received the Forum will consider whether to develop an agreement with similar ambitions to DORA, utilising The Metric Tide report, which aligns with the UK research base.
The Metric Tide report came out in 2015 and included recommendations for institutions (p.12ff). Some institutions have developed policies on responsible metrics – a list can be found at the top of this page on the Bibliomagician blog. Lizzie Gadd also published this article on the same blog which reports on her annual surveys of the bibliometrics community. It will be interesting to see if the HEFCE survey shows similar results.
Institutions are assessed partially on metrics for the world rankings and for some areas of the REF. Metrics can also be used for funding decisions, promotion, job applications, decisions on where to publish (e.g. using the Journal Impact Factor or other rankings of journals). This is more common in some subject areas and countries than others. If you want to learn more about responsible metrics, the Leiden Manifesto video is a good introduction to the issues:
[vimeo 133683418 w=640 h=360]
The Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics from Diana Hicks on Vimeo.