Our support for REF

Elements' REF functionality is built upon existing standard functionality, ensuring that activities such as review and OA monitoring can continue between exercises while the next exercise's submission requirements are still being refined.  This includes our Assessment functionality and our Open Access Monitor functionality.

We work directly with our community to:

• Confirm submission requirements

• Identify functionality required and discuss potential solutions

• Prioritise development

We do this through our REF Steering Committee (for REF2021, this was composed of 11 institutions, of various sizes and discipline compositions), and through REF-specific workshops following each release (every 3-4 months) where we:

• Demonstrate new functionality

• Update the community on the REF roadmap

• Gather feedback

We also offer a REF-specific space in our Elements support environment.

When appropriate we communicate directly with the REF team at Research England, particularly when developing the REF submission file and reproducing validation rules.

Our REF2021 functionality aimed to not only support constructing and making the submission, but also:

• Easily identify and rectify data issues

• Understand the composition of each unit’s submission

We supported the submission of:

• REF1 Research staff

• REF2 Research outputs

submitted within Units of Assessment (UoAs), and supported by appropriate user permissions / roles.

Image : Manage units management screen

Note that we did not directly support the submission of the following REF2021 elements:

• REF3 Impact

• REF4 Environment indicators (doctoral degrees awarded, research grant income)

• REF5 Environment statement

Our REF2021 functionality included support for configuring UoAs, including:

• Multiple submissions

• Research groups

• REF6b reduction

• Relevant OA policy

• Lock unit

The REF2 attributed outputs required was also calculated per UoA, based on based on Cat A FTE, REF6b reduction, etc.

Image:  UoA configuration

For REF2029, we would expect to modify the data requirements for UoAs as required:

• HESA staff FTE value

• Unit reduction (circumstances)

Our REF2021 functionality included support for the submission of REF1 Researchers.  This included:

• REF1 Researcher management screen

  • On-screen summary-level list with key properties displayed

  • Filters

  • Bulk actions

  • Stock reports

• REF1 form, which included support for:

  • Surfacing data (where relevant) from elsewhere in Elements (e.g. Name, ORCID)

  • Capturing submission decisions, overrides, reasons

  • All REF1 data fields and management

  • Loose workflow (optional)

    • Entry in progress

    • Checking underway

    • Complete

Image: Manage REF1 Researchers summary screen

Image: Elements REF2 model for REF2021

Our REF2021 functionality included support for the submission of REF2 Research outputs.  This included:

• REF2 Research output management screen

  • On-screen summary-level list with key properties displayed

  • Filters

  • Bulk actions

  • Stock reports

• REF2 form, which included support for:

  • Surfacing data (where relevant) from elsewhere in Elements (e.g. bibliographic data, OA status)

  • Capturing submission decisions, overrides, reasons

  • All REF2 data fields and management, including:

    • Output type mapping (with overrides)

    • Bibliographic metadata mapping (with overrides, where appropriate)

    • Additional REF2 data requirements, including:

      • ‘Additional information’

      • Output sub-profile category

      • Output allocation

      • Interdisciplinary, Forensic science, Criminology

      • Delayed due to COVID-19

      • ….

  • Open access

  • Acceptance + Attribution, including an attribution algorithm service

  • Output submission management

  • Loose workflow (optional)

    • Entry in progress

    • Checking underway

    • Complete

Image: REF2 form, Summary tab

Our REF2021 functionality included the generation of the submission XML file for upload to REF submission system.  When generating the file, the user could select what content to include in the file:

• UoA

• Form

• Workflow status

Image: REF submission file generation

Our REF2021 functionality included a number of stock reports and dashboards, 

Stock reports:

• REF Manager Publications Report

• REF Reviewer Score Calibration 

• REF1 Researchers 

• REF2 Research Outputs 

• REF2 Modified Publications

• REF Submission Validation

Dashboards:

• Submission summary 

• REF2 Indicative quality profiles

• REF2 Attribution profiles

• REF2 Properties

• REF data flags

Image: REF2021 dashboard: REF2 attribution profiles

The first Elements REF2029 Steering Group met in February 2024 and we discussed how Elements will support institutions in preparing, managing, and making their REF2029 submissions.

Once further decisions are published, we will have a better idea of what’s required to support REF2029 - a key unknown at this stage is the extent of the de-coupling of researchers from submitted research outputs.