FIZ Karlsruhe publishes action plan for the reform of research assessment within the framework of CoARA

Karlsruhe, May 26, 2025 - How can research performance be assessed in a fairer, more transparent and more context-appropriate way in the future? This question is at the heart of the European reform initiative CoARA - Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment. On May 22, 2025, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure  published its own CoARA action plan.

With the publication of the CoARA Action Plan for FIZ Karlsruhe, we are fulfilling our voluntary commitment as signatories of the “Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment” to take concrete steps towards reforming research assessment. The measures range from the recognition and promotion of various research achievements to professional expertise on the informed and responsible use of bibliometric data and participation in national and international initiatives - including the CoARA National Chapter Germany.

Our action plan focuses on five fields of action:

1. Open bibliometric data: As co-leaders of the Competence Network Bibliometrics (KB), we are committed to transparency, data literacy and the development of sustainable infrastructures.
2. Professional quality and information ethics: With zbMATH Open, we focus on discipline-specific evaluation criteria and protection against the misuse of scientific indicators.
3. Networking in infrastructure ecosystems: In close cooperation with NFDI, EOSC, OpenAIRE and other initiatives, we promote Open Science and the international discourse on research assessment.
4. In-house research and knowledge transfer: We strengthen the scientific basis of new evaluation approaches through doctoral projects, master's theses and publications.
5. Fair internal procedures: In recruitment, performance evaluation and career development, we promote open, diverse and quality-oriented processes - in line with our Open Science strategy.

With this action plan, FIZ Karlsruhe underlines its claim to be not only a service provider as a scientific infrastructure, but also an active driving force for modern, fair and open research evaluation.

Publication of FIZ Karlsruhe‘s CoARA Action Plan