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In the context of the common policy European Research Area (ERA) is one of the measures to reform the system of evaluation of research, researchers and institutions. The changes to evaluation are based on the initiatives of the Declaration DORA, Leiden Manifesto, principles HKP and coalitions COARA.

The European Commission notes that responsible evaluation of research projects, researchers, research units and research institutions is fundamental to a well-functioning research and innovation system and that current systems often use inappropriate and narrow methods to assess the quality, performance and impact of research. The number of publications in high impact factor journals and the number of citations are still the dominant indicators of quality, performance and impact.

Action is therefore needed to ensure that the quality, performance and impact of research and researchers are assessed and evaluated on the basis of more appropriate criteria and procedures. This includes rewarding open science practices in terms of open collaboration, early and open sharing of research results. This leads to increased quality, efficiency and trust. The redesigned system should be flexible enough to accommodate the diversity of countries, disciplines, research cultures, levels of research maturity, institutional missions and career paths.

Responsible evaluation and assessment systems based on the principles of open science allow for career diversification and vitalisation, thus promoting excellence in all key areas; they recognise the independence and autonomy of individual researchers, and recognise and take into account collective achievements; are based on qualitative aspects of evaluation and assessment, which are only complementarily supported by quantitative indicators; encourage early and open sharing of research results; promote socially engaged science; and foster leadership roles in scientific research.

In national law, under Article 40 Scientific Research and Innovation Activity Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 186/21, 40/23, 102/24 and 40/25) stipulates that the evaluation and assessment of researchers, research organisations, research programmes and projects must promote open science. Article 10 Decree on the Implementation of Scientific Research Work in Accordance with the Principles of Open Science (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 59/23 and 39/25) stipulates that funders must evaluate research activities, including the evaluation of research programmes and infrastructure activities, in the context of stable funding for scientific research, and in decisions on co-funding:

• Evaluate the substantive merits of the scientific research work, not the place of publication or its impact factor (or other journal metrics) or the publisher;
• consider other types of research outputs and other open science practices in addition to scientific publications. Other types of research outputs include, for example, research data and research software developed. Other open science practices include, for example, early and open sharing of research results, participation in open peer review processes, involvement of knowledge actors such as citizens, civil society and end-users in research, etc;
• Evaluate open access research results. Publications, especially scientific articles, should be made openly available, and research data should be FAIR and open as far as possible and closed as far as necessary. Research results should be accompanied by PIDs where available.

The Open Library offers the following services in the field of evaluation and assessment:

• Advice on the design and implementation of the evaluation of scientific research work according to the principles of open science.
• Advice on introducing qualitative evaluation.
• Advice on the production of records for researchers' bibliographies.
• Participation in training sessions and education.