How we can help

Contact your Information Librarian if you need any assistance in finding information on Research Assessment.

Research Assessment Exercises

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been subject to assessment of their research since 1986. The submission to the most recent exercise, RAE 2008, took place in late 2007 and the full results are available at www.rae.ac.uk

The Research Excellence Framework (REF)

Funding for Universities is based upon the results of the previous research assessment. The REF replaces the RAE with submissions expected in 2013 and outcomes in 2014.

The REF differs from the RAE by making some use of quantitative indicators in the assessment of research quality, including the use of bibliometrics indicators, and in using mechanisms for assessing the wider impact of research. (Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to measure the relative significance of texts such as journal articles by, for example, counting the number of citations an article has).

For further information about the operation of the REF, please visit the Research Support Office and the  REF Web site.

Leicester Research Publications Policy

Information on the requirements of the University of Leicester open access mandate can be found here.

Journal Impact Factors

We can provide information about Journal Impact Factors. These are used in many subject areas to determine the reputation and standing of certain journals and assist academics when choosing which journal(s) to submit their work to. Information Librarians can provide you with a list of Impact Factors for journals in your subject area, or can advise you on searching the Journal Citation Reports. An alternative to the JCR, based on data from the SCOPUS database is the SCImago Journal Country Rank

Digital Object Identifier

We can help you find the DOI of journal articles. These are needed in order to deposit work into the Research Expertise Database (RED) and the LRA).