The first round of evaluation of the effectiveness of academic institutions (research organizations of former State Academies of Sciences now subordinate to the Russian Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations) was conducted in 2017. This assessment was part of a national project to evaluate the performance of all Russian scientific organizations carrying out research, development and technological work. The authors participated in the adjustment of the methodology of the quantitative part of the assessment, the calculation of the indicators and the analysis of the results. The subject of this work is a review of the evolution of approaches to research assessment and evaluation in Russia in recent years, the analysis of the positive and negative aspects of the selected methods