Leiden Manifest

The Leiden Manifesto sets out ten principles of best practice for research evaluation based on metric indicators. These principles adopt a broad approach to the responsible use of bibliometrics across a wide range of disciplines and settings.

The Manifesto originated from the conference “Context Counts: Pathways to Master Big and Little Data”, held in Leiden in 2014.

The Leiden Manifesto emerged as a joint initiative of researchers from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University and the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where its main authors, Paul Wouters and Diana Hicks, are based. It has also received the support of collaborating institutions such as the Ingenio Institute (CSIC-UPV) and the Universitat Politècnica de València, which have contributed to its dissemination and consolidation as an international reference in responsible research evaluation.

The Leiden Manifesto is a response to the current state of research evaluation, which has shifted from being based on expert assessments to relying on routine, metrics-driven evaluations.

In addition, there has been a widespread increase in the misuse of indicators in assessing scientific performance. Universities focus on their position in global rankings, while researchers’ prospects for promotion or bonuses often depend, for example, on their h-index.

In this context, the Manifesto aims to change the way scientific performance is evaluated. Specifically, it emphasizes the contextualized use of indicators and pays particular attention to the uncertainties inherent in indicators at the individual level.

The Manifesto is intended for a broad audience responsible for evaluating research performance and ensuring public accountability.

Its beneficiaries include both managers and researchers, who evaluate and are evaluated respectively, based on their intrinsic merits and performance.

Science itself also benefits, since the application of the Manifesto’s principles can foster its progress, as well as that of society as a whole.

In 2016, the Manifesto received the Ziman Award from the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) for its collaborative promotion of public engagement with science and technology.

The global relevance of the Manifesto is demonstrated by the number of translations. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, including Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Swedish, Finnish, Persian, Slovak, Basque, and Catalan.

The Manifesto has been viewed more than 60,000 times on the Nature website and has accumulated *259 citations in Google Scholar, 128 in Scopus, and 55 in Web of Science.

Moreover, the principles set out in the Manifesto have informed research policy debates in Brazil, Panama, and Portugal, and have been promoted by Thomson Reuters, the former owner of the Web of Science database.

Information updated in 2017

Full compliance with the Manifesto is time-consuming, costly, and requires a significant increase in bibliometric expertise, both in terms of staff and knowledge levels.*

At the same time, it remains unclear how responsibilities are distributed across each of the ten principles, how non-compliance is managed, and its implementation ultimately remains a subjective choice.*

Information taken from the Manifesto’s own blog.

In 2017, the Faculty Council of Indiana University Bloomington adopted a responsible metrics policy aimed at promoting a principles-based use of metrics rather than restricting the use of data.

That same year, the University of Bath developed a set of research evaluation and management principles based on the Leiden Manifesto and The Metric Tide.

In 2018, the Russian Council for Ethics of the Association of Scientific Editors and Publishers issued an open call, inspired by the Leiden Manifesto, to those developing and applying quantitative indicators of editorial activity.

In 2019, the University of Glasgow developed a policy on the use of quantitative indicators in research evaluation, aligned with the principles of the Leiden Manifesto.

In 2021, the European Commission drew on the Leiden Manifesto to propose reforms to the research assessment system, aiming for research and researchers to be evaluated according to their intrinsic merits and performance. In this way, qualitative judgment through peer review is fostered, supported by a more responsible use of quantitative indicators.

• Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics: http://www.leidenmanifesto.org/
• The Leiden Manifesto on Research Indicators: https://www.nature.com/articles/520429a
• Manifesto Blog: http://www.leidenmanifesto.org/blog/
• Impact Two Years After Implementation: http://www.leidenmanifesto.org/blog/impact-at-2-years