The research that does not belong to a single subject area "very dangerous"

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 .