Stakeholders’ views on an institutional dashboard with metrics for responsible research

Background Concerns about research waste have fueled debate about incentivizing individual researchers and research institutions to conduct responsible research. Instead of looking at impact factors or grants, research institutions should be assessed based on indicators that pertain to responsible research. In this study, we showed stakeholders a proof-of-principle dashboard with quantitative metrics that visualized responsible research performance on a German University Medical Center (UMC) level. Our research question was: What are stakeholders’ views on a dashboard that displays the adoption of responsible research practices on a UMC-level? Methods We recruited different stakeholders to participate in an online interview. Stakeholders included UMC leadership, support staff, funders, and experts in responsible research. We asked interviewees to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this institutional dashboard approach and enquired their perceptions of the metrics it included. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. We applied content analysis to understand what stakeholders considered the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the dashboard and its metrics. Results We interviewed 28 international stakeholders (60% German). Overall, interviewees thought the dashboard was helpful in seeing where an institution stands and appreciated the fact that the metrics were based on concrete behaviors. Main weaknesses included the lack of a narrative explaining the choice of the metrics covered. Interviewees considered the dashboard a good opportunity to initiate change and hoped the dashboard could be supplemented with other indicators in the future. They feared that making the dashboard public might risk incorrect interpretation of the metrics and put UMCs in a bad light. Discussion While the feedback was given specifically to our proof-of-principle dashboard, our findings indicate that discussion with stakeholders is needed to develop an overarching framework governing responsible research on an institutional level, and to involve research-performing organizations.