A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

96

January 2020

There are two reasons why AQU Catalunya assesses research work carried out by teaching staff:

• Assessment reports for lecturer accreditation, which involves pre-selection assessment to establish eligibility for the selection and recruitment of teaching staff at HEIs in Catalonia, as a requirement that accredits that the holder has a certain level of research capability. Once an applicant has obtained accreditation, the selection and recruitment procedure is undertaken by each HEI, which endorses calls for applications for teaching staff, sets the requirements for the necessary experience, specialisation and capabilities, and selects the people best suited to the profiles of the posts available.
• The assessment of merits in research (six-year research quality premiums), in connection with productivity-based bonuses for public service and contract teaching and research staff, which accredits research work carried out during the period under assessment, under the terms provided for by law. In the case of the public universities, it is the social council (consell social) that, at the proposal of the governing board, allocates the corresponding remuneration.

Attention, together with various documents that have been published, has recently focused on the assessment of research by teaching staff, such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics. These documents warn about possible bias that can occur in the assessment of scientific production. The procedures applied by AQU Catalunya in the assessment of teaching staff, which are based on the peer review of contributions, align with the vision set out in these two documents in various aspects, including:

• The prevalence of quality over quantity. AQU Catalunya's Research Assessment Committee (CAR) is responsible for approving the procedure and assessment criteria according to each subject area, and its specific committees and review panels carry them out independently. The assessment criteria were reformed in 2016 to include the prevalence of proven quality over the number, or quantity, of contributions. Quantity and bibliometric parameters serve as a guide, but it is the proven quality of contributions that prevails.
• Consensual assessment by experts. Each application is assessed by various specialists with expertise in each field of knowledge who have been appointed as members of each specific committee or review panel according to their capabilities, experience and diversity. The specific committees are made up of a sufficient number of members and advisors to ensure that all subject areas undergoing accreditation are covered by experts. Decisions regarding the outcome of assessment are made on the basis of consensus by the specific committee as a whole.

AQU Catalunya and the Research Assessment Committee work continuously to improve and enhance the assessment criteria and procedure and to adapt them according to changing circumstances in the system, and they are grateful for any comments and/or suggestions aimed at continuous improvement, such as those set out in the DORA statement and the Leiden Manifesto.