An introduction to the research excellence framework: A new research evaluation framework for universities in the UK: Comparison with the status of research evaluation in Japan

This article introduces the Research Excellence Framework (REF), a new research evaluation framework developed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to evaluate the research activities of higher education institutes in the UK. To promote excellent research so that its potential effect can be maximized, REF has three criteria for evaluating institutes: output quality, impact, and research environment. Remarkably, although the purpose of REF is university evaluation, social impact is explicitly included within the evaluation framework. It is proposed that output quality be evaluated by conventional review with the aid of quantitative bibliometric indicators such as the number of paper citations. In this article, we will introduce REF, from output to impact, and will make suggestions about the evaluation of research and university in Japan.