The dust may not have completely settled on the outcomes of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, but some key questions are starting to crystallise around how changes made since the 2014 iteration of the REF have influenced the results.
Perhaps chief among these is the extent to which the shift from the selection of individual researchers towards the submission of all research-active staff – albeit with greater flexibility on outputs – has influenced the 2021 data.
Although it seems to be generally accepted that game-playing in the form of selecting only those researchers whom institutions feel would perform well has been largely eliminated – notwithstanding gripes about those individuals who had been moved away from research contracts in recent years – has it merely been replaced by strategising around outputs?
