To date, there are no universally applicable standards for the consideration of Open Science in the evaluation of research. The current measurement of scientific success, which is primarily based on publications (citations), reflects neither the effort nor the benefits of Open Science. In order for Open Science practices to be worthwhile for scientific reputation, new methods of performance evaluation would have to be developed that reward Open Science practices. Such methods would also have to include the publication of research data and methods, review activities or comments.

There have already been attempts to develop complementary indicators to supplement citation-based indicators such as the “H Index” and “Journal Impact Factor” in order to include information about the occurrence of scientific results outside of specialist journals. These attempts place greater emphasis on aspects of digital science. Altmetrics, for example, measure the response on social media. However, altmetrics are not without limitations when it comes to measuring Open Science: Like all other quantitative indicators, they place more weight on quantitative values (such as citations and retweets) than on non-quantifiable attributes (such as the quality of research).

Of central importance to the Open Science movement is the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA),which has been signed by numerous stakeholders in the research community. It calls for journal-based metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor not to be used as a substitute for assessing the quality of an individual research article. Instead, new standards must be created for evaluating the contributions of individual researchers or for decisions on their appointment, promotion or funding that support unrestricted access to scientific results.

In addition, research institutions and research funding bodies should consider not only publications but also all other research outputs (including data sets and software) and a range of other factors such as qualitative indicators of research impact, for example influence on policy. As this is a highly complex issue, scientific communities themselves must decide how to implement it.