Conference on Bibliometrics, League Tables and the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF). (May 6, 2008)

On April 30 The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters (formally Thomson Scientific) and King’s College London hosted at the college a one-day conference: Beyond the RAE 2008: Bibliometrics, League Tables and the REF; the REF being the planned successor to the UK's Research Assessment Exercise.

Yesterday the hosts announced the results of a survey of representatives from 75 U.K. universities and research institutes taking part who noted key concerns about research evaluation in the planned REF. The survey was run in conjunction with the conference.

Top billing, indicated by 28%, was "getting accurate and verifiable data," while 20% noted "Institutional infrastructure," "Knowing what is required," and "Time and workload".

According to FoxBusiness' Jim Pringle, vice president of product development for the Scientific business at Thomson Reuters said: "The survey results tell us that these representatives from the U.K. research system have reservations about their access to accurate, verifiable data within the REF, and their participation in the 'Beyond the RAE' conference is an important first step in addressing them. The conference's open, productive dialogue aired these and other concerns of institutional representatives involved with the changing evaluation research system."

Contributors to the conference included presentations by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE), The Center for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Evidence, Ltd. and the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters, with an external perspective provided by ANU's Australian Research Evaluation and Policy Project.

FoxBusiness also reports there were "case studies presented by King's College London, the University of Leicester and the University of Southampton [which] showcased these universities' experiences with systems and processes for research evaluation in the context of the RAE 2008, illustrating the level of innovation and effort being put forth by the U.K. university community".

The conference website can be found at http://scientific.thomson.com/kcl/.

Below is the pre-conference agenda.

There is no indication if the proceedings of conference are to be published.

Agenda

8:30-9:30 Registration, Coffee

9:30-9:45 Welcome Karen Stanton, Chief Information Officer and College Librarian , King’s College London

9:45-10:05 Overview and Update on the REF, Graeme Rosenberg

10:05-10:20 Principles of citation-based evaluation and TS tools, content, and strategies to assist universities.

 James Pringle,
Vice President, Development, Thomson Scientific

10:20-10:40 Best practice in use of citation data.

  Anthony F.J. van Raan
Director, Centre for Science& Technology Studies, (CWTS)
Leiden University

10:40-11:00 Best practice in use of citation data.

 Jonathan Adams
Director, Evidence Ltd

11:00-11:20 Perspective from outside the UK

 Linda Butler, Fellow and Head
Research Evaluation and Policy Project (REPP)

11:20-12:00 Questions and Discussion

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Review and Discussion of Findings from the pre-meeting survey

 King’s College London

1:30-3:00 Collecting and verifying research output for RAE/REF - Case studies from UK universities

 1. Case study 1: King's College London

Speaker: Dr Mary Davies (Deputy Director of ISS & Director of Customer Services

2. Case study 2: University of Leicester

Speakers: Hywel Williams (Head of Library Academic Services) & Dr Juliet Bailey (Research Development Manager)

3. Case study 3: University of Southampton

Speaker: Dr Leslie Carr (Senior Lecturer, School of Electronics & Computer Science)

3:00-3:30 Afternoon Tea

3:30-4:30 Panel Discussion, questions, issues for future meetings

Moderator: Alan Thomson, features editor, Times Higher Education