What is DORA (the Declaration on Research Assessment)?
DORA, the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, is a global declaration calling for research to be assessed on its own merits rather than by journal-based metrics like the Journal Impact Factor.
DORA — the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment — is a 2012 declaration, now signed by thousands of organisations and individuals worldwide, that sets out recommendations for improving how research is evaluated. Its central message: do not use journal-based metrics, such as the Journal Impact Factor, as a proxy for the quality of individual articles or researchers.
Instead, DORA asks that research be assessed on its own merits, that a range of outputs and impacts be valued, and that the limitations of metrics be made explicit.
What DORA means for metrics on a CV
In practice: don't cite the Impact Factor of the journals your papers appeared in, lead with the work itself, and if you include metrics prefer field-normalized indicators with context. Many institutions and funders now assess applications in line with DORA.
How SigmaCV aligns with DORA
SigmaCV is built to this stance: metrics are off by default and opt-in, it prefers field-normalized indicators over raw counts, and it never shows a journal Impact Factor.
Read: using metrics responsibly
Frequently asked questions
What does DORA say about the Journal Impact Factor?
DORA explicitly recommends against using journal-based metrics like the Journal Impact Factor to assess the quality of individual research or researchers, because the JIF measures the journal, not the article.