Online ISSN: 2822-4841
Founding Year: 2022
Publication Frequency: Biannual
Country: Türkiye
Publisher: Erhan Yaylak

Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)

  • DECLARATION ON RESEARCH ASSESSMENT (DORA)

    Pedagogical Perspective (PedPer)

    ISSN: 2822-4841  |  DOI Prefix: 10.29329

    Quick Summary

    Pedagogical Perspective (PedPer) (eISSN: 2822-4841) has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and endorses its principles. DORA is an international initiative calling on the scholarly community to improve how research outputs are evaluated. PedPer is committed to fair, transparent, and content-based research assessment.

    PedPer’s DORA signatory status can be verified at sfdora.org/signers

    1) What Is DORA?

    The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) was initiated in 2012 during the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. It is a worldwide initiative that covers all scholarly disciplines and is signed by thousands of organisations and individuals. DORA’s central recommendation is that journal-based metrics (such as Journal Impact Factor) should not be used as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess individual researchers’ contributions, or to make hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.

    2) DORA’s Key Recommendations for Journals

    DORA recommends that journals:

    • Reduce emphasis on the Journal Impact Factor as a promotional tool and instead highlight the quality and diversity of published content.
    • Make available a range of article-level metrics (e.g., downloads, citation counts, altmetrics) to encourage assessment based on the content of individual articles rather than journal-level indicators;
    • Encourage responsible authorship practices and transparent reporting of research;
    • Remove or reduce constraints on the number of references in research articles and, where appropriate, mandate citation of primary literature rather than reviews to give credit to original researchers.

    3) How PedPer Implements DORA Principles

    As a DORA signatory, PedPer puts the following practices into effect:

    Content-based editorial decisions

    All editorial decisions — including acceptance, revision, and rejection — are based solely on the scholarly merit, methodological rigor, originality, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field of each individual manuscript. PedPer does not use journal-level metrics as a criterion for editorial decisions. For full details, see the Peer Review Policy.

    No promotion of journal-level metrics as quality proxies

    PedPer does not use the Journal Impact Factor or other journal-level metrics as a primary indicator of the quality of its content. The journal does not advertise or promote journal-level metrics as a reason to submit manuscripts.

    Article-level visibility and impact

    PedPer supports article-level discoverability and impact measurement by:

    • Assigning a unique DOI to every published article via Crossref;
    • Making all articles freely available under open access (CC BY 4.0) to maximise readership and citation potential;
    • Ensuring all articles are indexed in major academic databases and discoverable via Google Scholar, EBSCO, ERIH PLUS, and other platforms;
    • Supporting metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH) for broad dissemination.

    Transparent and open publishing practices

    PedPer’s commitment to open access, no-APC publishing, transparent peer review policies, and publicly documented editorial standards reflects the spirit of DORA’s call for fair and responsible research assessment. See the Open Access Policy and Article Processing Charges (APCs) / Fees pages.

    No restrictions on references

    PedPer does not impose a maximum limit on the number of references in submitted manuscripts. Authors are encouraged to cite all relevant primary literature to ensure proper credit allocation, in line with DORA recommendations.

    4) Implications for Authors and Reviewers

    For authors

    Authors submitting to PedPer can be assured that their work will be evaluated on its own merit, not on the journal’s impact factor or ranking. PedPer encourages authors to assess journals based on the relevance of the journal’s scope to their work, the quality of the peer review process, editorial policies, open access availability, and the journal’s commitment to publication ethics—rather than on journal-level metrics alone.

    For reviewers

    Reviewers are asked to evaluate each manuscript on its scholarly contribution, methodological soundness, and relevance to the field—without reference to the journal’s citation metrics or ranking.

    5) Broader Commitment to Responsible Assessment

    PedPer’s endorsement of DORA is part of a broader commitment to responsible, ethical, and transparent scholarly publishing. This commitment is also reflected in PedPer’s other signatory initiatives:

    For full details on PedPer’s governance, mission, and editorial standards, see the Publisher & Who We Are page.

    Related Policies

    Other Signatory Commitments

    Contact

    For questions about DORA or research assessment: info@pedagogicalperspective.com