Getting our hands dirty: why academics should design metrics and address the lack of transparency

Metrics in academia are often an opaque mess, filled with biases and ill-judged assumptions that are used in overly deterministic ways. By getting involved with their design, academics can productively push metrics in a more transparent direction. Chris Elsden, Sebastian Mellor and Rob Comber introduce an example of designing metrics within their own institution. Using the metric of grant income, their tool ResViz shows a chord diagram of academic collaboration and aims to encourage a multiplicity of interpretations.