Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
REF: An Idea Whose Time Never Came
Reporting on panel looking at the UK’s Research Excellence Framework, Liz Morrish looks at whether the assessment tools created by government have extended their reach and left academics exposed.
Playing the Game of REF
A very strong overall REF performance signifies a large concentration of outstanding work. It is an unambiguous plus. All the same, precise league table positions in the REF, indicator by indicator, should be taken with a grain of salt.
With the REF, We Can Evaluate the Impact of Impact
Measuring impact was a key feature of the just-released Research Education Framework in the UK. But ‘impact’ isn’t as fair a measurement as we could hope.
We’re At Work on the Next Iteration of REF
Not all eyes will be glued to the release of the UK’s Research Excellence Framework on Thursday. Some of the people who built the REF are evaluating the current lessons to improve the next version.
A Quick Q&A on the REF With Its Creator
The Conversation asked the man who developed Britain’s Research Excellence Framework back in 2008, Rama Thirunamachandran, vice-chancellor and principal at Canterbury Christ Church University, to talk through it. We repost that conversation here.
What Can REF Teach Us About Impact?
Discussions around the REF have tended to be negative, but what exactly is viewed poorly varies by interest group[. Two academics who conducted an analysis of the media’s covefage of the framework argue there is much that can be learned for future assessment exercises and it is ever-more important that we get it right when thinking about ‘impact’ in research and the pressures academics face.
Is Maximizing the Impact of Research Desirable?
There is a push to demonstrate the impact of the social sciences, especially as political and funding authorities start viewing them through an immediate-payoff prism. But showing impact doesn’t always come at no cost.
Britain’s New Open Access Policy Changes the Game
With the final consultation period now over, the open access policy for Britain’s next Research Excellence Framework has been released. Alma Swan looks at the rollout–which requires the deposit of articles into repositories–and finds this is pragmatic but good policymaking that should help shift the culture in British universities towards open access.
