Funder slams reliance on bibliometric factors

DFG paper calls for “change in culture” to recognise different publication styles and improve assessment

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Germany’s largest public research funder, has criticised the central importance of bibliometric factors for scientific quality evaluations.

Last week, the DFG published a position paper, titled Academic Publishing as a Foundation and Area of Leverage for Research Assessment, which is intended to contribute to national and international discussions on the future of scientific publication and evaluation. In the paper, the funder proposes the creation of an alternative framework to assess scientific quality that is less reliant on citations and commercial publishers.