In this paper, we engage with the Research Excellence Framework (REF) -- the UK government's national policy tool for competitive allocation of scarce research funding. Success on the terms of the REF provides guaranteed income for UK Universities for a 6- or 7-year period -- and as a result, we suggest that the REF operates as an asset-like…

From an understanding of knowledge mobilisation as a set of strategies that favour responsible and inclusive research, the aim of this paper is to identify the obstacles or barriers to carrying out such research in higher education institutions, as perceived by researchers. In this descriptive study, content analysis is used to examine…

This paper investigates the paradox of research productivity of higher-education institutions in the Arab Gulf Countries. Exploring the case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the article fills the gap in the literature on the Gulf higher education research efficiency. Despite the considerable investment into higher education, UAE universities…

Objectives: The research examined the impact of a national crisis on the research output of academic program and department heads in Israel, investigating how these leaders functioned in the face of prolonged uncertainty and exploring whether their administrative role resulted in personal costs. Methods: Data were drawn from interviews with 27…

To develop robust research support services across the entire research life cycle, individuals and units from across the university, including the library, must collaborate across internal silos. Effective "social interoperability"--the creation and maintenance of working relationships between individuals and organizational units--in…

Centres of Excellence (CoE) have become a common research policy instrument in several OECD countries the last two decades. The CoE schemes are in general modelled on the organisational and research practices in the natural and life sciences. Compared to 'Big science', the humanities have been characterised by more individual research, flat…

This article discusses the intensification of research performance demands in UK universities in relation to the complex terrain of academic identity formation. It considers whether a demand for academic researchers to produce and evidence economic and societal impact -- in the rewards game of the UK's performance-based research funding system,…

World University Rankings (WUR) are growing in prominence in the eyes of governments and universities around the world. Often this encourages the introduction of state- or institution-wide policies and regulations that put academics and graduate students under performative pressure to publish in international, peer-reviewed journals with a high…

The purpose of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is to judge the quality of research in the UK and on that basis to apportion to universities, in a transparent manner, differential shares in the UK's £1.6 billion pot of research funding. However, the funding process is anything but transparent! While the REF process was known years in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the research efficiency of the Chilean higher education institutions (HEIs). As it has been argued in the literature, universities in Chile are far from being considered research-oriented institutions. Current governmental reforms have put pressures on the efficient use of public resources,…

This article explores some aspects of and challenges faced by those academics and administrators who undertake the leadership and management of research activity in contemporary UK universities. This analysis is set in the context of almost three decades of reforms to the UK's higher education systems in general and to research funding and audit…

This paper provides a review of institutional authorship policies as required by the "Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research" (the "Code") (National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) & Universities Australia (UA) 2007), and assesses them for Code compliance.…

Universities worldwide experience continual change in order to achieve what is perceived as improvement. In these changes, there is usually an emphasis on the research function of a university, and the literature contains a number of themes in this regard. We contribute by presenting a detailed case study of a non-research-intensive university…

This article complicates how Canadian universities are pressured to capitalize on research and how these same pressures affect both the collaborative and community-based research within the academy by privileging one type of research and relationships within community over others. Through examining historical influences on Research Ethics Boards…