Output diversification is a structural goal of responsible-assessment reform. It addresses the systemic devaluation of non-article outputs that disproportionately affects fields where books, performances, datasets or software predominate, and that disincentivises the production of foundational research infrastructure. CoARA Commitment 4, DORA Recommendation 5, and the Hong Kong Principle 4 all explicitly call for assessment of a broad range of outputs. Implementing diversification requires venue-agnostic evidence frameworks, persistent identifiers for diverse outputs (DOIs for data and software, RRIDs for resources), and reviewer training in non-article evaluation.
References
- CoARA Agreement, 2022. Pinfield S et al. 'Research outputs in the digital age' Learned Publishing, 2020.