BMJ 2000;321:302 ( 29 July )

Letters

Quick fixes for research assessment exercise will not work

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---Tomlinson challenges those who seek to abandon the research assessment exercise to propose a credible alternative for the accountable allocation of public money.1 Goldbeck-Wood quotes a patients' spokesman, Clive Wilkinson, as saying, "The public understands that research is essential; but it needs to be on their terms---not on the basis of what is comfortable to academics."2

The research assessment exercise's criteria are those by which scientists customarily judge their peers; as Tomlinson observes, they take little account of the impact of medical research on the quality of practice. The alternative to the exercise is to place health related research and development at the heart of NHS change management.

Applied medical research is not "science."3 Its "change promoting paradigm" is directed toward the needs of resource managers (including clinicians). Thus research and development should be commissioned to meet the particular needs of managers and aid real life decision . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

The research assessment exercise and medical research
Stephen Tomlinson
BMJ 2000 320: 636-639. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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