ATRIUM Peer Review Framework

A central objective of ATRIUM is to support high-quality, cross-disciplinary research by improving how diverse research outputs are evaluated, recognised, and rewarded.

This is achieved through the ATRIUM Peer Review Framework,  a qualitative, criteria-based assessment model designed to address structural biases in traditional research evaluation systems that privilege journal articles and citation-based metrics, while undervaluing critical research contributions such as datasets, models, workflows or software. By building community consensus around a peer review framework, ATRIUM aims to maximise the quality and impact of arts and humanities research in Europe and to recognise a wide variety of research outputs and  “behind-the-scenes” work that are necessary for building and maintaining innovative research infrastructures.  

Grounded in Open Science principles and aligned with international reform initiatives, including, most notably, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment ( CoARA ), the framework prioritises contextualised qualitative judgement over metric-driven evaluation. It supports reviewers and editors through a structured combination of narrative assessment and transparent scoring, while explicitly embedding accessibility, reusability, and sustainability as core evaluation dimensions. 

The framework is already being piloted in practice through Transformations: A DARIAH Journal , a Diamond Open Access overlay journal launched in 2024 and hosted on the Episciences platform. This practical implementation demonstrates the feasibility of the framework within real editorial workflows and open peer-review environments.

The first version of the framework defines three sets of evaluation criteria:

1. Data Papers
2. Workflow Papers
3. Training Materials

Looking ahead, the ATRIUM Peer Review Framework will be expanded with additional evaluation criteria for 3D scholarly assets, textual scholarly editions, and software and code.