"The University uses metrics to inform its assessment of research performance, whilst recognising that metrics should be used only in an appropriate and responsible way"
Please visit the Office for Open research website to read the full University of Manchester Responsible Metrics statement.
We also endorse the five principles underpinning 'responsible metrics' published in The Metric Tide (2015).
The principles were informed by an independent review of the role of metrics in research assessment and management, and include:
Robustness: basing metrics on the best possible data in terms of accuracy and scope.
Humility: recognising that quantitative evaluation should support but not supplant qualitative, expert assessment.
Transparency: keeping data collection and analytical processes open and transparent, so that those being evaluated can test and verify the results.
Diversity: accounting for variation by field, and using a range of indicators to reflect and support a plurality of research and researcher career paths across the system.
Reflexivity: recognising and anticipating the systemic and potential effects of indicators, and updating them in response.
A review of the Metric Tide (Harnessing the Metric Tide) was published in 2022. The review included a number of revisions to the original recommendations, revisiting the potential use of metrics in future REF (Research Excellence Framework) exercises.
Manchester was one of the first UK signatories of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which was published in 2012. This (alongside our own responsible metrics statement) commits us to using metrics only in appropriate and responsible ways.
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