In this piece published in Research Information, Rebecca Pool speaks to Daniel Hook, Chief Executive of Digital Science, about China’s move away from a single-point metrics-focused evaluation system.

“‘We are seeing unsettled times for metrics in China,’ he says. ‘The government has effectively [asked] each institution to locally define the metrics that are important to it, and that it would like to work on, and so create a new norm for China from the ground up.’

Daniel Hook, chief executive of Digital Science

Digital Science is not a fan of single-point metrics and ranking and as a result invested in the non-traditional bibliometric company, Altmetric in 2012 and introduced the Dimensions database in 2017. Dimensions links many types of data including Altmetric data, awarded grants, patents, and more recently datasets, with a view to moving research evaluation practices beyond basic indicators.