The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), initiated by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) together with a group of editors and publishers of scholarly journals, recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scientific research are evaluated. The group met in December 2012 during the ASCB Annual Meeting in San Francisco and subsequently circulated a draft declaration among various stakeholders. DORA as it now stands has benefited from input by many of the original signers listed below. It is a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines. We encourage individuals and organizations who are concerned about the appropriate assessment of scientific research to sign DORA.
An analysis of available data on individual DORA signers as of June 24, 2013, showed that 6% were in the humanities and 94% in scientific disciplines; 46.8% were from Europe, 36.8% from North and Central America, 8.9% from South America, 5.1% from Asia and the Middle East, 1.8% from Australia and New Zealand, and 0.5% from Africa. The distribution of signers by country is shown in the graphic at right (all countries listed have at least one signer).
