Good practices
Adopting good practices in research assessment means implementing clear and transparent evaluation criteria, while pursuing excellence, fairness and inclusivity. As the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) points out, universities are intended to evaluate candidates with both quantitative and qualitative indicators, taking a large spectrum of outputs into account. This new perspective calls for actions in hiring and promotion processes. By aligning with DORA principles, the University of Bern fosters a more equitable, diverse, and innovative work environment.
Reforming Research Assessment in the Vetsuisse Faculty
Research assessment in veterinary science has always relied heavily on quantitative indicators, such as the numbers of publications and citations. While such metrics provide valuable insights, they often fail to capture the full scope of academic contributions, overlooking international collaborations, open science practices, and societal impact. Reliance on publication metrics can also introduce bias, favouring fields with higher citation rates while ignoring important yet less frequently cited topics, like clinical veterinary research or animal welfare science.
While trying to dismantle an unhealthy culture based on a publication rush, the academic community advocates for better practices. To address this issue, in 2016 the University of Bern signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which defines responsible evaluation strategies. Recognizing the limitations of traditional metric-based evaluations, the research committee of the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern, headed by Prof. Dr. Hanno Würbel, has undertaken a reform of its assessment practices, supported by Dr. Christophe Schneble and Dr. Jürg Friedli from UniBE Research Management Office.
Find out more about their new evaluation process!
Bias-free hiring
Following the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, the University of Bern commits to fair hiring and responsible evaluation while enhancing academic excellence and diversity.
Recruitment processes emphasize equal opportunities, with structured selection criteria, diverse hiring committees, and measures to prevent bias. All our eight faculties and five research centres (AEC, ARTORG, CDE, CSH, WTI) adopted an Equal Opportunities Action Plan, ensuring that equality remains a core institutional priority. Centres without their own plan participate in a faculty-led initiative to promote equal opportunities.
The Office for Equal Opportunities (AFG) supports hiring processes through the guide "Hiring Process at the University of Bern - With Special Consideration of Equal Opportunities". An equal opportunity officer participates as a non-voting observer in structural and election committees for appointing full and associate professors, as well as tenure-track assistant professors. Additionally, each committee includes a designated faculty member responsible for gender and equality matters. Equal opportunities officers from the faculty and from the AFG are actively involved also during the structural phase preceding the job advertisement. Each structural commission must include representation from at least one person of each gender. Diversity is encouraged in all evaluation panels.
Since 2016, the Faculty of Medicine asks all appointment candidates to answer standardized questions on gender equality. Since 2018, the faculty has actively sought candidates from underrepresented genders to ensure more balanced hiring pools.
The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) applies a diversity-sensitive and standardized recruitment process, guaranteeing gender representation at every stage, from job advertisement to final selection.