May 2021

This month reports summarises four articles that in/directly relate to the impact of universities. The first paper by Stockhammer et al. (2021) updates Lee’s (2007)[a] analysis that a RAE/REF style evaluation of research marginalises divergent viewpoints in economics. The second study developed a machine-learning framework to predict high impactful biotechnology (Weis & Jacobson 2021). The third essay, discusses the ‘activist university’ (Barnett 2021). The last represents a recently published book on all things research impact (McKenna 2020).

1) They did an analysis of the REF 2014 submission, and found that “half of all outputs […] in Economics are from 19 journals” (p.3). Furthermore, they compared their findings with Business and Management, History and Politics unit of assessments, finding a similar pattern in all of them. Thereby, whilst the REF explicitly states that they reject journal rankings and impact factors, in practice their judgements reinforces such metrics and marginalises heterodox economic journals and viewpoints. They make the claim, that this not only endangers intellectual pluralism, but also has real world consequences. For example, several economists outside the heterodox canon predicted failures based on systemic issues, yet the mainstream position failed to do so.

2) They trained a machine-learning tool on a data set of 42 biotechnology related journals with publications from 1980 to 2019. They identified metrics that go beyond citations to establish correlation between the papers. The goal was to identify high impact ideas before they became mainstream. Via a blinded retrospective study, they trained the algorithm to identify the papers that became impactful, before they did so. For 2018, they identified 50 papers that they predict will be in the top 5% in the future. They propose tools like theirs as a means to aid future funding decisions. 

3) Barnett argues that universities (and the academics that comprise them) are actively and passively ‘activists’. In the sense that their deliberate (social) causes may align with a particular agenda, or their coolly articulated ideas passively generate revolutionary new modes of thinking. Furthermore, the modus operandi can be everything from confrontational to diplomatic, forming a quadrant of discursive space where academic activism occurs. “They stand in networks – of conventions, regulations, traditions and values – that are themselves in motion. There is no stable state for any stance or action that might bear the banner of the activist university.” (italics in original). Nevertheless, the openness for rational dialogue represents a necessary pre-condition for “a legitimate academic activism [as it] has to heed certain conditions and hold in view certain responsibilities” (italics in original).

4) The book represents the reflections of Professor Hugh McKenna, Pro Vice Chancellor of Research from the University of Ulster on the REF 2021 research impact evaluation. Especially, in relation to practical challenges, as implied by the sub-title of ‘Guidance on Advancement, Achievement and Assessment’. What is interesting about the book, is the author itself, in that he needs to navigate (at least) three different identities in relation to research impact. Firstly, that of the academic who generates it, secondly the administrator who manages it and lastly the assessor who judges the quality of the research impact. The tensions between these are a common theme throughout the book. Thereby, as much the book constitutes a guide to research impact, it also represent the very process of institutionalisation and a biographic snapshot of how one institution solved this issue.

a. Lee, F. S. (2007). The Research Assessment Exercise, the state and the dominance of mainstream economics in British universities. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 31(2), 309-325.

1. Stockhammer, E., Dammerer, Q., & Kapur, S. (2021). The Research Excellence Framework 2014, journal ratings and the marginalisation of heterodox economics. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 45(2), 243-269.

2. Weis, J. W., & Jacobson, J. M. (2021). Learning on knowledge graph dynamics provides an early warning of impactful research. Nature Biotechnology, 1-8.

3. Barnett, R. (2021). The activist university: Identities, profiles, conditions. Policy Futures in Education, 14782103211003444.

4. McKenna, H. P. (2020). Research impact: Guidance on advancement, achievement and assessment. Springer Nature.