Article Text
Abstract
The research assessment exercise (RAE) forms the basis for determining the funding of higher education institutions in the UK. Monies are distributed according to a range of performance criteria, the most important of which is “research outputs”. Problems to do with publication misconduct, and in particular, issues of justice in attributing authorship, are endemic within the research community. It is here argued that the research assessment exercise currently makes no explicit attempt to address these concerns, and indeed, by focusing attention on research outputs, may actually be fostering such ethical problems.
- Research assessment exercise
- publication ethics
- authorship
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
-
Aziz Sheikh, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, MRCGP, DCH, DRCOG, DFFP, is NHS R&D National Primary Care Training Fellow, Department of General Practice & Primary Health Care, Imperial College School of Medicine, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG.
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Authorship of research papers: ethical and professional issues for short-term researchers
- RAE brings mixed results for UK vet schools
- Athena SWAN and gender diversity: a UK-based retrospective cohort study
- Science journal editors’ views on publication ethics: results of an international survey
- The research assessment exercise and medical research
- Awareness, usage and perceptions of authorship guidelines: an international survey of biomedical authors
- How should we rate research?
- An exploration of practices affecting research integrity in global health partnerships
- The vexed question of authorship: views of researchers in a British medical faculty
- Research output on primary care in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States: bibliometric analysis