Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)

Declaration on Research Assessment and Responsible Research Assessment

International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Engineering (IJCIE)
Published by DeepCognix AI Labs Pvt. Ltd.

Our Commitment to Responsible Research Assessment

The International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Engineering (IJCIE) is committed to promoting rigorous, transparent, fair, and responsible assessment of scholarly research. As a peer-reviewed journal covering computational intelligence, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, data science, optimization, engineering intelligence, and related interdisciplinary areas, IJCIE recognizes that the quality and significance of research cannot be adequately represented by a single journal-level metric or numerical indicator.

IJCIE therefore supports the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and is committed to advancing responsible research assessment (RRA) within scholarly publishing.

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is a global initiative that promotes improved approaches to evaluating scholarly research and researchers. DORA emphasizes assessment based on the scientific and scholarly content of research rather than inappropriate reliance on journal-based metrics. IJCIE supports these principles and intends to progressively incorporate responsible research assessment practices into its editorial and publishing policies.

DORA website: https://sfdora.org/

Principles of Research Assessment at IJCIE

IJCIE believes that research assessment should recognize the diversity, quality, originality, rigor, transparency, and potential impact of scholarly contributions.

Accordingly, the journal is committed to the following principles:

1. Assessment based on scholarly quality

Editorial and peer-review decisions will primarily consider the scientific and scholarly content of an article, including its originality, methodological rigor, validity, clarity, relevance, contribution to knowledge, technical soundness, and potential significance.

Journal-level indicators will not be treated as substitutes for assessment of the individual research contribution.

2. Responsible use of research metrics

IJCIE recognizes that quantitative indicators can provide useful supplementary information but should be interpreted carefully and in context.

The journal will avoid presenting any single metric as a definitive measure of the quality, importance, or impact of an individual article, author, researcher, or research contribution.

Where quantitative indicators are presented, IJCIE will seek to encourage their clear, transparent, specific, contextual, and fair use, consistent with responsible research assessment principles.

3. Reducing inappropriate reliance on journal-based metrics

IJCIE supports the DORA principle that journal-based metrics, including the Journal Impact Factor, should not be used as proxies for the quality of individual research articles or as substitutes for qualitative assessment of researchers and their contributions.

The journal will therefore avoid using journal-level metrics as the primary basis for communicating the quality or significance of individual articles.

4. Recognition of diverse research contributions

IJCIE recognizes that valuable scholarly contributions extend beyond conventional research articles.

Where appropriate, research assessment should consider contributions such as:

  • Research datasets and curated data resources

  • Software and source code

  • Algorithms and computational methods

  • Benchmarking resources

  • Experimental methodologies

  • Reproducible workflows

  • Tools and systems

  • Negative or null findings

  • Interdisciplinary research contributions

  • Research with demonstrable societal, industrial, educational, or practical impact

This approach reflects DORA's recommendation that research assessment should consider the value and impact of a broad range of research outputs rather than publications alone.

5. Responsible authorship and contribution recognition

IJCIE supports transparent recognition of individual contributions to scholarly work.

The journal encourages authors to clearly describe their respective contributions and supports the use of recognized contributor-role frameworks, including the CRediT taxonomy, where appropriate.

Authorship should reflect substantive scholarly contributions, and contributors should receive appropriate recognition for the work they perform.

6. Recognition of research quality beyond citation counts

Citation counts, h-index values, altmetrics, downloads, views, and other quantitative indicators may provide useful information about aspects of research visibility or influence, but they do not independently establish research quality.

IJCIE therefore supports assessment that considers qualitative evidence alongside quantitative indicators, including methodological quality, reproducibility, innovation, technical significance, societal or industrial relevance, and influence on research and practice.

7. Transparency and reproducibility

IJCIE encourages authors to provide sufficient methodological information to enable appropriate understanding, evaluation, and, where feasible, reproduction of their research.

Where applicable, authors are encouraged to make research data, source code, software, models, protocols, and other supporting materials available through appropriate repositories, subject to ethical, legal, privacy, intellectual-property, and security considerations.

8. Fair and inclusive assessment

IJCIE is committed to fair and unbiased scholarly assessment.

Editors and reviewers should evaluate submissions based on their scholarly merits and should not allow factors such as institutional prestige, geographical location, nationality, language background, career stage, gender, or other irrelevant characteristics to improperly influence assessment.

The journal also recognizes the value of interdisciplinary, emerging, applied, and innovative research that may not conform to traditional disciplinary boundaries.

9. Responsible peer review

Peer review at IJCIE is intended to assess the quality and contribution of submitted research rather than the prestige of the authors, institutions, or journals associated with the work.

Reviewers are encouraged to provide constructive, evidence-based assessments addressing the scientific contribution, methodology, technical validity, originality, clarity, limitations, and potential significance of the research.

10. Responsible citation practices

IJCIE supports responsible citation practices that appropriately acknowledge relevant primary research and scholarly contributions.

Authors and reviewers should avoid unnecessary citation manipulation, excessive self-citation, coercive citation practices, and citation practices intended primarily to influence bibliometric indicators.

The journal recognizes that appropriate citation should be determined by scholarly relevance rather than metric-driven considerations.

Implementation and Continuous Improvement

IJCIE recognizes that responsible research assessment is an evolving area of scholarly publishing and that meaningful implementation requires continuous review of editorial policies and practices.

As part of its commitment to DORA and responsible research assessment, IJCIE will progressively review its:

  • Editorial assessment criteria

  • Peer-review guidelines

  • Author and contributor policies

  • Use and presentation of research metrics

  • Article-level indicators

  • Citation practices

  • Research-data and software policies

  • Transparency and reproducibility practices

  • Recognition of diverse research outputs

  • Policies supporting fairness and inclusiveness in scholarly assessment

The journal will seek opportunities to improve its research-assessment practices as guidance, standards, and community expectations develop.

IJCIE also recognizes that signing DORA represents a commitment to responsible research assessment and ongoing improvement, rather than an assertion that every aspect of research assessment reform has already been fully implemented.

Our Position on Journal Metrics

IJCIE does not consider the prestige of a journal or a journal-level metric to be an appropriate substitute for evaluating the scientific content of an individual article.

Journal metrics may provide contextual information about journal performance or visibility, but research quality should be assessed primarily through the substance and contribution of the research itself.

This position is consistent with DORA's recommendations for publishers and journals, which include reducing emphasis on journal impact factors, providing article-level indicators, encouraging responsible authorship, and improving recognition of diverse research contributions.

Commitment to the Research Community

Through this statement, the International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Engineering publicly endorses the principles of DORA and responsible research assessment.

We encourage authors, reviewers, editors, researchers, institutions, and other members of the scholarly community to contribute to a research ecosystem in which researchers and their work are evaluated fairly, transparently, and meaningfully.

IJCIE will continue to review and improve its policies as responsible research assessment practices evolve and will communicate significant developments to the journal's scholarly community.

Governance and Responsibility

The implementation and periodic review of this commitment is overseen by the Editorial Office of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Engineering, under the leadership of the Editor-in-Chief.

Questions or recommendations concerning responsible research assessment and the implementation of DORA principles at IJCIE may be directed to the journal's Editorial Office.

International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Engineering (IJCIE)
Published by DeepCognix AI Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Website: https://ijcie.com/ijcie

Date of publication: August 2026

Status: Public Commitment to DORA and Responsible Research Assessment

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