Guidance on submissions for the REF2021
Guidelines on materials to be submitted to the next REF with a summary of key points
This resource is licenced under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence by Claire Sewell, the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge University Libraries.
The REF (Research Excellence Framework) is one of the biggest drivers of change for both researchers and librarians. Last run in 2014 and next scheduled for 2021 the REF is defined as the “system for assessing the quality of research in the UK higher education institutions”. This exercise assess both the quality and impact of research in order to determine how funding bodies (including the government) distribute the funding they have available for further research. Each department and institution is given a rating based on how good their research output is determined to be and how much of an impact it has made, both within and outside of academia. As many institutions rely on the money awarded to support their research remit, the importance of the REF should not be underestimated.
The REF is managed by UKRI (UK Research and Innovation). Still in development, this group aims to strengthen the presence of UK research and ensure that funding is fairly distributed. You can read more about the new organisation here.
As well as impacting researchers, the process and outcome of the REF has an effect on library staff. In financial terms having a good REF score helps to bring in more money for research which leads to an active academic environment and also increases the role that librarians can play in the research process. In order to be eligible for inclusion in the REF, research outputs need to be made openly available and often have to be accompanied by the underlying data which supports any claims made. To gain a high score, research outputs also need to make a good impact, further increasing the pressure on the researcher. This all comes at a time when they would rather be moving on to their next project but librarians can provide valuable support services.
