Inria signatory of the Declaration of San Francisco

This Declaration published in 2013, initiated by scientists from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and a group of scientific journal publishers, questions the growing use of the Journal impact factor as an index for research evaluation. In particular, it recommends taking into account the value of all scientific productions and giving more importance to the scientific content of an article than to the journal in which it was published.

At the launch in early July of the National Open Science Plan, Frédérique Vidal, Minister for Higher Education and Research, mentioned this Declaration and recalled the importance of qualitative evaluation of research.

The signing of this Declaration is in line with the criteria already favoured by Inria for the evaluation of research, as Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau, Deputy CEO for Science, explains :  : "Inria has for many years been advocating strong values in research evaluation, as implemented by its Evaluation Committee. Thus, for the recruitment and promotion of its researchers, as for the evaluation of its project teams, Inria relies on a qualitative assessment of research work rather than quantitative bibliometric indicators. In addition, great importance is attached to the impact of research in all its forms, including software. It was therefore natural for Inria to sign the San Francisco Declaration on the Evaluation of Research."