NIH Issues RFI on Measuring and Rewarding Scientific Impact

By: CJ Neely
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
NIH has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on how scientific impact should be measured, recognized, and incentivized across the biomedical research enterprise (NOT-OD-26-087). Responses are due August 19, 2026.
 
The RFI is part of NIH's Replication and Reproducibility Initiative and broader efforts to advance rigorous and reliable biomedical research. NIH notes that current measures of scientific success often rely heavily on individual indicators of productivity, such as publication counts and citation metrics, and is seeking input on additional indicators that reflect the collaborative, rigorous, and mission-driven nature of modern biomedical science.
 
NIH specifically requests feedback on rigor and reproducibility, data, software, and model sharing, training and mentorship, collaboration, entrepreneurship and translation, foundational scientific exploration, and public impact. The agency is particularly interested in measurable indicators, implementation approaches, potential benefits, unintended consequences, and considerations across career stages, disciplines, and institution types.
 
While NIH has previously sought stakeholder input on topics such as data sharing, research infrastructure, and workforce development, this RFI takes a broader view by asking how scientific contributions across the research enterprise should be recognized and rewarded. Notably, several areas highlighted in the RFI, including mentorship, collaboration, and public impact, represent contributions that are important to scientific progress but are often less visible in traditional measures of scientific productivity.
 
The RFI also emerges amid broader discussions across the research community about how researchers are assessed and rewarded. Recent activities from the National Academies and other stakeholders have explored whether current incentive structures adequately recognize contributions such as mentorship, collaboration, research integrity, open science practices, and community engagement. NIH's RFI may provide insight into how the agency is thinking about the future of research assessment as biomedical science becomes increasingly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and data intensive.
 
FASEB is reviewing the RFI and plans to submit comments on behalf of its member societies.