Public Statement on Responsible Research Assessment and DORA

The Journal of Sustainable Cities and Built Environment (JSCBE) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published under the auspices of Kingdom University. The journal aims to advance high-quality, impactful research addressing sustainability, urban development, and the built environment, with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary scholarship, societal relevance, and real-world application.

JSCBE is committed to ensuring that research assessment within its editorial and peer-review processes is fair, transparent, inclusive, and focused on the intrinsic quality and contribution of research, rather than on proxy indicators or journal-level metrics.

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is a global initiative dedicated to improving how research outputs and researchers are evaluated. DORA promotes assessment practices that prioritise the content and quality of individual research outputs, rather than relying on journal-based metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor. More information about DORA is available at: https://sfdora.org

The Journal of Sustainable Cities and Built Environment formally endorsed DORA in 2025. The principles of DORA align closely with the journal’s mission to promote research that demonstrates methodological rigor, originality, transparency, ethical integrity, and relevance to sustainable development and urban challenges, regardless of where or in what language the research is published.

By endorsing DORA, JSCBE commits to moving beyond inappropriate reliance on journal-based metrics and to supporting responsible, qualitative, and context-sensitive approaches to research assessment.

As part of its ongoing implementation of DORA, JSCBE has adopted and is strengthening the following practices:

• Editorial and peer-review decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, and contribution of manuscripts, not on journal metrics or citation expectations.
• The journal does not promote Journal Impact Factors or similar journal-level metrics in its editorial policies or author guidance.
• Authors are encouraged to provide ORCID identifiers to ensure transparent and accurate attribution of scholarly work.
• The journal supports transparent authorship and is in the process of adopting the CRediT taxonomy for contributor roles.
• JSCBE encourages open scholarship practices, including data availability statements, data citation, and adherence to FAIR data principles, where appropriate.
• Article-level information and qualitative indicators are provided to allow readers and stakeholders to assess research value beyond citation counts.
• The journal is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in editorial governance, peer review, and publication practices.

JSCBE views DORA implementation as a continuous process and will periodically review and update its editorial policies to ensure alignment with evolving best practices in responsible research assessment.

The implementation and oversight of responsible research assessment and DORA principles within the journal are managed by the Editor-in-Chief’s Office.

For questions regarding research assessment practices or DORA implementation, please contact:
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Sustainable Cities and Built Environment
Email address: jscbe.editor@ku.edu.bh