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06.15.2022 | Member News & Releases

SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, Signs the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (Dora)

DORA is a worldwide initiative to improve the ways in which outputs of scholarly research are evaluated

June 14, 2022 – SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, today announced that it has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Developed during the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco, DORA commits to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. Under the agreement, participating publishers agree to provide a range of article-level metrics to encourage assessment based on the scientific content of the article rather than the journal in which it was published; encourage responsible authorship practices; remove reuse limitations on reference lists; and reduce the constraints on the number of references in research articles. To date, more than 21,000 individuals and organizations in nearly 160 countries have signed DORA.

SPIE currently publishes the Proceedings of SPIE and 14 peer-reviewed journals through its SPIE Digital Library platform. The SPIE Digital Library, the world’s largest collection of optics and photonics applied research, comprises more than 560,000 publications covering topical areas ranging from biomedical optics and neuroscience to physics and astronomy-related technology.

“SPIE is proud to join the growing number of organizations signing DORA,” said SPIE Director of Publications and Platform Patrick Franzen. “Making research accessible to the scientific and technical community is an integral part of the Society’s mission and that includes upholding responsible scholarly research-assessment practices across our publishing portfolio.”

“I warmly welcome the decision by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, to sign DORA,” said DORA’s Chair Dr. Stephen Curry. “Learned societies play an influential role in the scholarly ecosystem, and I look forward to seeing how SPIE’s implementation of the DORA recommendations will foster the propagation of responsible research assessment practices both within the Society and by its members.”


About SPIE SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, SPIE has contributed more than $22 million to the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development. www.spie.org.

Contact Daneet Steffens, Public Relations Manager | daneets@spie.org | +1 360 685 5478 | @SPIEtweets

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