BMJ  2006;332 (29 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7548.0-f

Editor's choice

Where next for the research assessment exercise?

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

The rules for deciding who gets public money for research in the United Kingdom are set to change. The world's largest research assessment exercise (RAE)—which has dominated the lives of UK academics for the past 20 years—is to be ditched after the next round in 2008, and consultation begins next month to find an alternative. This week's BMJ carries the first of a series of contributions debating the future of research assessment in the UK and around the world.

Many will welcome an end to the tyranny of the RAE. It has clearly succeeded in concentrating funds within selected high performing institutions, which was the government's aim, but at a high cost, say its critics. The cost includes distorting the research agenda by favouring pure science over applied or practice based research and encouraging safe, mainstream research that will deliver publications within a few years. Riskier, longer term research, research . . . [Full text of this article]

Fiona Godlee, editor

(fgodlee@bmj.com)


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