Most
university departments to be in a state of frenzy now with the last
date for submission of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) only days
away. Are
also crossed the Ts post and spread , you may approaching deadline
comes as a relief to those of heads of departments and personnel
involved in the application process. But for many of the academics and the process so far is very grim .David
Leech feet , a professor of economics at the University of Warwick and
an expert in the variable results of the voting rules in the UK, four
research papers to the province , all of which have been rejected for
being " substandard in terms of quality ." While
acknowledging the economy as a distinct discipline , work Leech is a
multi - disciplinary , spanning economics and political science and
operations. Simply put, it does not fit in a single subject area ."
The government 's policy is to promote interdisciplinary research ,
ibid says it makes allowances for interdisciplinary research , but the
university does not seem to be doing it and considers the risk ," says
Leech .After
making the Data Protection Act request - which provides a more complete
picture about the individual REF case of - discovered that his research
did not flagged as a multi-disciplinary . The verdict was simply working as economical. Had been published three papers presented at public choice , a multi-disciplinary journal high scores.REF
replace the previous Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and a system
for assessing the quality of research in higher education institutions
in the United Kingdom on the basis of three weighted factors : outputs (
65% of the class ) , and impact ( 20 %) and environment /
sustainability (25 %). Universities can provide defenses in 36 units of assessment, or subject areas . Then research is evaluated by an expert panel subset in each of these areas. REF will determine research funding received by each university , which will be announced in December 2014." The framework proposes REF constraint set of incentives that should fall in ," says Leech . Young
people are going to see the disincentives to straying outside the
familiar boundaries , which will have a " huge impact " on the quality
of research in the United Kingdom , he believes.Claimed
the University College Union , which Leech is joint head of Warwick,
said last month that interdisciplinary research in Warwick was being
often excluded from the process submissions REF . Denies
a spokesman for the university this, and the response: " If you do not
have anyone to note that the University appreciates not only
interdisciplinary research , but in fact actually built a strategic
research about it, then they did not pay a lot of attention. " Credited
university also approach multidisciplinary for the significant increase in grant money received for the past academic year .After the leech is not alone in worrying about the impact of the province on interdisciplinary research. Also
been excluded Paulo Palladino , a professor of history at the
University of Lancaster and the active voice in the community
interdisciplinary studies in history and social science from the
province , and says " culture of secrecy " about the application process
is the real problem.Palladino
says: " linked to staff even more tightly to the departments at the
same time too for those departments , based on current experience , and
are forced by exercises such as REF to become synonymous with
specialties I am now being asked effectively to abandon my obligations
multidisciplinary 's . Research that meets the approval of REF ".In
response, the spokesman said Lancaster University , says : "I was
informed individuals with them on the basis of one-to- one at the
departmental level regarding the status of their outputs Lancaster has a
strong commitment and long-term for the work of a multi-disciplinary ,
and will submit it to . Province where he is considered to be part of a group of works that are internationally excellent in quality. "Palladino
predicts a bleak future for interdisciplinary research , which he says
will end up confused with cross - disciplinary , so that any cooperation
between academics in different disciplines is defined as the provision
of interdisciplinarity .Semantics aside, there's no denying this complex issue is gaining traction only . How can senior management interdisciplinary research ? Kevin
Schurer, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leicester and a
professor in history , says: "Some of interdisciplinary research may
provide a lot of risk to be provided , because it is not strong enough
in any discipline and one to attract the grade which reflects the
research supports it."Schurer
himself no stranger to the problems of access to interdisciplinary
research presented : "In the last Research Assessment Exercise , and I
had two of these pieces to cross the science and the humanities, which,
despite being in scientific journals high in the category , being
relatively cited well, was not
provided because they may not have been well-received by the History
panel , due to the level of a relatively small content and history, and
it was thought too risky to cross refer to the panel of Biological Sciences , and the search is not central to the unit , either . "These views fit in with the reputation of higher education as a risk-averse sector . But the issue goes far beyond the university itself . Research
Councils , at which time facilitates interdisciplinary research when
they can of the joint distribution of funding , are still subject to
clear limits between disciplines . Some academics argue that this makes them part of the problem , and leads to the generation of unequal funding streams .Then
there is the controversy over the definition of 'quality' , which sees
John Holmwood , professor of sociology at the University of Nottingham ,
as " a question of organization and disciplinary power," one that
reflects the changing political environment for research funding .It
is believed Holmwood interdisciplinary research challenges disciplinary
hierarchies through the creation of new forms of critical knowledge ,
such as gender studies and postcolonial studies , cultural studies ,
none of them acknowledged in the agenda of the impact of REF.Holmwood,
and one of the most important things that go against interdisciplinary
research is the way research is evaluated in the province through the
construction of small panels Thread . He
explains : "The problem is where someone has to be a judge to work in
an area where there is no representative of the area to quell any
provision negative ," adding that "the size of the panels Multi REF make
this likely to be the case ."Another
common concern is the impact on innovation and research those seeking a
career in early in an attempt to reach a career path in academia. With
the campaign for publication in magazines high-impact , Elizabeth
Dzeng, a PhD student at Cambridge University , says there is concern
that the researchers did not remain true to their own understanding of
the research quality and identical to the definition of Journal of
quality in the hope of getting published.With
a 2012 study showing that the highest ranking journals " span a variety
of disciplines less than Less magazines arrangement " , and this can
disincentivise young researchers to engage in interdisciplinary
research.The sacrifice of academic freedom is a big price to pay, not only for researchers but multidisciplinary academia in general. As
for Dzeng, she has come to understand the path that you need to take to
get published, as they provide manuscripts to jornals Medical will need
to be written through more "mentality objective ," and not through "
the Legend " that they feel is more suitable for the project .