Research Evaluation

Implementation of the CoARA principles at the Sigmund Freud Private University
Commitment to Pluralized and Contextualized Research Assessment

Sigmund Freud Private University (SFU) is firmly committed to advancing responsible, transparent, and pluralized research assessment practices in line with the principles of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).

CoARA is a Europe-wide initiative that aims to reform how research and researchers are evaluated — moving beyond traditional metrics such as journal impact factors or publication counts. Instead, CoARA calls for a qualitative, and values-based approach that recognizes the full range of contributions scholars make to science and society.

SFU signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, joining the CoARA – a community of institutions dedicated to ensuring that research assessment recognizes and promotes/supports quality, integrity, openness, collaboration, and societal impact.

SFU’s Role and Ongoing Implementation

SFU is among a selection of research organizations receiving cascade funding via the Horizon Europe CoARA Boost project, coordinated by the Europeand Science Foundation through the CoARA Secretariat.  The Institutional Pilot Project ‘CoARAverse in Psychology ’explores more contextualized and pluralized ways of documenting and evaluating research activities according to diverse research cultures. The new approaches, developed in close collaboration with the CoARA Working Group of the Faculty of Psychology, will be expanded to university level following the pilot project.

In order to embed the CoARA principles in SFU’s institutional culture and research governance, representatives from all faculties as well as Quality Management are involved in these processes.

Since September 2025, SFU has been implementing CoARA-inspired indicators within its Pure Research Information Management System. This marks a major step in systematically documenting both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of research performance across the university.

What We Recognize— A Broader Picture of Research

The implementation process at SFU reflects the CoARA’s call for a more responsible and inclusive understanding of research contributions and careers.
The indicators currently included in SFU’s research documentation go well beyond traditional, output-based metrics and encompass areas such as:

  • Collaboration and Networking Activities: International cooperation, interdisciplinary partnerships, conference organization
  • Support for Early-Career Researchers: Supervision, mentoring, student research involvement
  • Research Integrity and Openness: Open access publishing, data sharing, pre-registration of studies
  • Research-Led Teaching: Integration of research into curricula and supervision-based learning
  • Societal and Policy Engagement: Contributions to policy advice, consultancy, and public discourse
  • Community and Academic Service: Peer review, editorial roles, participation in committees and boards
  • Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research, i.e., work that bridges academic boundaries and fosters innovation

These examples are not exhaustive. The indicator set is continuously expanded and refined based on faculty feedback, evolving research practices, and international standards. These indicators will be evaluated in a contextualized manner to account for the diverse research cultures at our university. In line with the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, SFU recognizes that not all individual researchers and research units need to excell in all categories.

Data Collection and Reporting

All CoARA-aligned indicators are documented through Pure, SFU’s institutional Research Information Management System. Researchers are encouraged to record the full spectrum of their activities — from supervising theses and mentoring colleagues to public engagement or collaborating across disciplines.

This approach ensures that SFU’s research activities are visible in their full diversity and that all contributions are appropriately recognized.

The first institutional report on research output including CoARA-inspired indicators will be published in January 2026, representing an important step towards a more responsible and transparent approach to research evaluation in Austria.

Through the implementation of the CoARA principles, SFU is helping to redefine the assessment of research excellence, quality, value, impact in qualitative terms.

Our aim is to evaluate research not only by what is published, but also by how it contributes to the respective research communities. By doing so, SFU contributes to shaping an international research culture grounded in fairness, openness, and social responsibility.

 

Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed in the content are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. This project has received funding from the CoARA Boost programme under grant agreement No 101131826.

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