How to prepare submissions to the RAE dress rehearsal
9 January 2007
Introduction
This document details five concurrent steps to preparing RAE dress rehearsal
submissions. It is anticipated that the work will be shared between colleagues in a
Department and coordinated by the UoA leader in each case.
Step 1 – Identify staff for inclusion in the dress rehearsal
Step 2 – Collect and assess publication information
Step 3 – Collect esteem information
Step 4 – Verify staff details, student and finance data
Step 5 – Revise RA5a-c
Timetable
Please note that UoA leaders are responsible for coordinating the activities listed for
the period 9 January to 23 March. No extensions can be given and departments are
strongly advised start work towards the dress rehearsal without delay.
9 January to
23 March 2007
April
May-June
July
August-Sept
October
November 30
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Establish eligible staff list
Update publications and esteem in PIP
Write publication commentaries
Transfer information from PIP to the RAE tool
Verify central data (staff details, research students and income)
Meet with R&I manager to discuss submissions
Conduct provisional assessment of publication quality
Finalise RA5a
Easter break and dress rehearsal panel induction meetings
Panel meetings
Panel outcomes presented to University Committees
Decisions communicated to Departments
Appeals process (see the RAE code of practice for details)
Fine tuning submissions
Final submission
Note on the RAE software
During the dress rehearsal Departments will review and update publication and
esteem data in PIP. The renewed PIP RAE tool will enable UoA Leaders (or
administrators) to gather information from PIP and verify that it is complete (missing
information will be highlighted on screen and in printed reports). The tool will then
generate forms RA1 (staff details) and RA2 (outputs) for the dress rehearsal.
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After the dress rehearsal these forms will be uploaded to the HEFCE software along
with the statistical forms RA3a (student data and awards) RA3b (studentships) and
RA4 (income). Once on the system these forms can be accessed and amended by the
University in the lead-up to the final submission.
Step 1 – Identify staff for inclusion in the dress rehearsal
All eligible staff who have not already been identified for non-submission to the RAE
should be included in the dress rehearsal. This includes:
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Current academic staff (Category A)
New appointments to be in post by 31 October 2007
Academic staff who left the University in 2001 or later (Category B)
Affiliated researchers in non HE organisations (Category C or D)
A provisional staff list must be established in January and forwarded to the Research
and Information Manager. The template at Annex A may be used for this.
Step 1 – What to do
1. Read the Guidance on Submissions pp.15-19: www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2005/03.
2. Identify all research active staff in your home department and all researchers
elsewhere in the University or in the broader University community with links to
the Department or UoA you are coordinating. Exclude only those who are clearly
ineligible or who have been identified for non-submission by the University.
3. Liaise with other UoA leaders and HoDs to ensure that you have identified all
staff eligible for consideration in your UoA.
4. Work out what each person’s RAE staff category will be on the census date.
5. Make a list and forward to the Research and Information Manager
6. Add affiliated researchers to ‘contacts on the web’ if they are not already in
person finder.
7. Enter each eligible person’s name into the PIP RAE submission tool for the UoA
you are coordinating.
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Step 2 – Collect and assess publication information
8. Only publications listed in PIP and released to the PIP RAE tool using access
controls will be available to the internal assessment panels during the dress
rehearsal. UoA Leaders must ensure that all staff are aware of this and that the
Publications section of PIP is up to date for all individuals being considered.
Step 2 – What to do
9. Read the Guidance on Submissions pp.19-22 www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2005/03.
10. Ensure that all current and forthcoming publications have been entered into PIP. A
minimum of 6 items in the period 2001-2007 must be entered unless special
circumstances apply or fewer items have been published.
11. For each item listed which falls in the RAE period, work through the checklist at
Annex B to ensure the bibliographic reference is complete. Ensure that access
controls have been set to release the information in PIP to the RAE tool.
12. Using the RAE submission tool (for individuals or UoA leaders/administrators)
select up to 6 items from each person’s PIP publication record.
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Log on to PIP here www.bath.ac.uk/pip and enter the RAE submission editor
Individuals can enter their own record to select publications; alternatively
UoA leaders or administrators can enter the submission itself then work
through the list of named individuals (proxy access is not needed for this).
Select up to 6 publications and indicate the order in which they should be
listed. Publications must be numbered sequentially for PIP to proceed (ie if
you miss a number out it won’t work).
If no publications are visible access controls may need to be adjusted to
release the information in PIP to the RAE tool. This can only be done by
individuals, or (exceptionally) by the Research and Information Manager.
NB. UoA leaders may wish to provide additional advice on numbering
publications (eg strongest to weakest, sole authored first or last etc)
If fewer than 6 publications are selected a justification must be provided in the
commentary box. This should be short and to the point. (Eg Part time for 18
months owing to illness; eg. Early career researcher, in post since May 2005).
13. Assess the quality of all publications listed in the dress rehearsal submission. This
should be done by senior members of the department(s) represented in the
submission. Publication quality should be assessed with reference to the panels’
published criteria. You can refer to journal impact factors and citation rates but
should not rely solely on these. Consider reading outputs (at least in part) to assess
quality. Be consistent.
14. Enter the star quality rating for each item into the PIP RAE tool. Only UoA
leaders or administrators can do this (individuals cannot rate their own work).
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Step 3 – Collect esteem information
PIP can be used to collect esteem information relevant to the RAE. Once the dress
rehearsal is complete additional PIP applications will be developed to make further
use of this information (eg web page generator for Departments, international activity
monitor).
Step 3 – What to do
15. Circulate the list of esteem factors for your UoA to all individuals on the eligible
staff list and ensure that the ‘research activity’ section of PIP is updated to include
all relevant activity from 2001-2007.
16. Ensuring that the correct access controls are in place for each person, use the RAE
submission tool to copy esteem from PIP into the submission.
17. To view esteem at departmental level use the PDF generator in the RAE tool to
generate a report as follows:
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Log in to PIP and enter the RAE submission editor for your UoA
Click on ‘PDF Export’ at the top of the screen.
Use the menu on the right to design your report then follow the instructions on
screen to download the PDF document.
Print and/or save the report before closing your web browser.
18. Ensure that the details of each item of research activity (or indicator of esteem),
including the relevant dates, are presented clearly.
19. This information will inform the esteem section of RA5a (at the time of writing it
cannot be produced as a word document but this function should be available by
mid January).
Step 4 – Verify staff details, student and finance data
Staff details (RA1), PGR student numbers and awards (RA3a), studentships (RA3b)
and research income (RA4) are held centrally. Departments are asked to verify the
data sent to them by the research and information manager to ensure that errors or
omissions which may have been overlooked in the past are picked up ahead of the
submission deadline, and to double check that no errors have crept in as reports are
produced.
During the dry run we tried to provide information at the level of the individual
through PIP. Unfortunately that didn’t work because of the complexity of the RAE
process and of our own data systems. The statistical information for RAE 2008 will
be provided to departments as follows:
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Staff details: In PIP individual profiles (drawing information from TRENT)
PGR numbers and studentships: Detailed excel spreadsheets by department
Research Income: Detailed excel spreadsheets by department
Research income and student information will be verified at the level of the
Department. UoA summaries will be generated centrally ahead of the dress rehearsal
panel meetings and subsequently revised.
Step 4 – What to do
20. Consider meeting each individual in your dress rehearsal submission to run
through the following information with them.
21. Check the personal details (RA1) listed for each individual in the PIP RAE
submission editor tool. Ensure that the following are accurately recorded:
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Surname and initials
Date of birth
FTE (required for category A staff only)
Start date (essential if on or after 1 January 2001)
Leave date (essential if on or before 30 October 2007)
Contract start/end dates (essential for fixed term appointments – for multiple
contracts see Guidance on Submissions page 16 paragraph 75L)
22. Check that the list of PGR students and supervisors looks right. Where possible
indicate if students have been wrongly included or excluded. If in doubt check the
guidance on submissions pp. 22-25 to see which students are eligible for
inclusion.
23. Where a student is listed with no supervisor please provide the relevant name.
24. Where multiple supervisors of a student are to be returned to different UoAs
please indicate the proportionate split of supervisory responsibility (otherwise an
even split between supervisors will be assumed).
25. Check that the list of grants appears complete and that the reported spend
corresponds to expectations. (Errors or omissions may be reported by exception
but on the whole we anticipate that this information will be correct for all
departments).
26. When errors or queries are identified, please contact the Research and Information
Manager. She will work with central departments to update the University
databases.
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Step 5 Revise RA5
RA5 is in three sections. RA5a contains the textual commentary and details of esteem
indicators; RA5b provides details of special circumstances limiting the volume of
research cited for particular individuals; RA5c details the relationship of category C
staff with the Department.
NB RA5b and RA5c do not count toward the word limit for RA5a.
Step 5 – What to do
27. Download the University’s good practice guide on writing RA5a and revise your
2006 draft in the light of comments already received. Update the list of esteem
using new information provided in PIP.
28. Share RA5a with other UoAs in your faculty and aim for a consistent approach to
common elements (eg faculty support for research, facilities for research students)
29. Ensure that individuals with fewer than 4 publications to submit to the final
exercise have provided a suitably phrased explanation. Descriptions of special
circumstances should be short and should focus on the impact of the
circumstances on the person’s ability to conduct research. If the case is unclear it
can be discussed in confidence with the Research and Information Manager.
30. Log special circumstances in the PIP RAE tool.
31. For each member of Category C staff a brief description of the person’s
relationship with the department should be provided. See paragraph 90 of the
guidance on submissions (page 19).
Finally - how to make your submission to the dress rehearsal
When all steps have been completed and PIP has been checked for accuracy and
completeness your submission should be complete.
To make your submission, email the research and information manager to confirm
that you have finished work on PIP. Include your RA5a commentary as an
attachment. No other attachments are required as no supplementary information will
be needed. The rest of your submission will be generated as follows:
RA1
RA2
RA3a, RA3b
RA4
RA5b and RA5c
Generated by the PIP RAE submission tool
Generated by the PIP RAE submission tool
Generated centrally from data verified by you
Generated centrally from data verified by you
Generated by the PIP RAE submission tool
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How to prepare submissions to the RAE dress rehearsal
Annex A – Template list of staff for inclusion in the dress rehearsal
Name
Eg. AA Smith
RAE
Home
Comments
Staff
Department
(Eg, Early career, part time, new
Category
appointment, unclear eligibility status)
A
0.5 fte – two publications to be submitted
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How to prepare submissions to the RAE dress rehearsal
Annex B – Entering information into PIP
Introduction
PIP must be used to provide information about publications and esteem for the RAE.
During the dress rehearsal Departments will review and update publication and
esteem data in PIP. The improved PIP RAE tool will enable UoA Leaders (or
administrators) to gather information from PIP and verify that it is complete (missing
information will be highlighted on screen and in printed reports). The tool will then
generate forms RA1 (staff details) and RA2 (outputs) for the dress rehearsal. After the
dress rehearsal these forms will be uploaded to the HEFCE software along with the
statistical forms RA3a (student data and awards) RA3b (studentships) and RA4
(income). Once on the system these forms can be accessed and amended by the
University in the lead-up to the final submission.
Proxy access
In some departments, administrators may be available to assist with entering
information into PIP. To provide proxy access to colleagues you should do the
following:
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Log into the PIP suite at www.bath.ac.uk/pip
Enter the Personal Information Portal application
Click on your name beneath the heading Edit your own profile
Click on the box marked Access Control
Under the heading Proxy Editors towards the left of screen, click on Add proxy
Type in the user name of the person to whom you wish to grant proxy access
Click add
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on update access
Setting access controls
Individuals: please note that only you can set the access controls for your profile.
If you do not release your information to the RAE software tools none of your
publication information will be available to the dress rehearsal panel or for inclusion
in the final submission. All Category A staff must complete this step themselves.
Once the information has been entered into PIP, individuals need to set their access
controls to release the relevant information to the RAE software tool. To do this
follow steps one to four above, then:
9. Click on the box marked Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
10. Click on the grey box to the right marked select all
11. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on update access
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Publications
Publication details may be entered manually by typing (or cutting and
pasting/dragging and dropping) the required information into the appropriate fields.
Or, publication details may be imported directly from bibliographic files stored on
your computer, or created for this purpose using Web of Science, the Engineering
Index Compendex or similar.
You should enter all publications (or outputs) published during the assessment period
– 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2007. Forthcoming publications in press can be
entered into PIP as normal. Put the anticipated publication date in the date field and
use RAE commentary box to provide details of the publication timetable. Confidential
publications should be discussed with the relevant UoA Leader in the first instance.
To upload publications from Web of Science
1. Open your internet browser and go to: http://wok.mimas.ac.uk – If you are reading
this on-screen – just click on the link to connect.
2. Click on Connect to the ISI World of Knowledge, followed by Web of Science
3. Use the Author Finder or General search options to identify your outputs.
(Individual researchers may have an advantage over administrators here as items
don’t always come up first time and it helps to know what you’re looking for.)
4. You now need to mark all the entries that you want output to file. You can do this
by clicking on them one at a time, (if all outputs listed are yours) by marking them
all in the Output Records box on the right of screen. Then click on the Add to
Marked List box where it will indicate how many records have been selected.
5. At this point a Marked List box should appear at the top of the screen. Click on
this to specify the fields to include in the output. In Step 1, ensure that you have
clicked the ISSN box to ensure that the ISSN is included in the output. Then go to
Step 2, and click on Save to File.
6. Follow the on screen instructions to name the file and save to a local directory.
Don’t open the file as it will look like garbage – but PIP will know what to do
with it. You can now come out of the Science Citation Index.
7. To input this file into the PIP System, log into PIP and enter the Personal Profile
Directory
8. Click on Publications and go to the bottom of the page to Upload Publications.
9. Browse through your directories until you find your file of records from the SCI.
Upload the file, and see what you get.
A similar process applies to other online bibliographic databases. Start by identifying
your publications on the database and saving them to your computer. Then upload the
file to PIP using the grey keys at the bottom of the PIP publications screen.
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Publication record checklist
Use this checklist for all publications to be considered for submission to the RAE
even if they have been imported from departmental records or online databases.
Date
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Output type
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Title
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Co-authors
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ISBN/ISSN
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DOI
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Commentary
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For books only the year is needed. (If PIP asks for a month you can
approximate the actual publication date or just default to 1 January
in the relevant year)
For other items indicate the month of publication.
For items published by season, put any relevant month – eg Winter
2006 can be recorded as 1 December 2006.
The fields in PIP and in the RAE software aren’t a perfect match.
For anything that is ‘in press’ make sure the actual output type is
listed For edited journal volumes use ‘Journal Full’.
For normal journal papers use ‘Journal article’. (The old ‘Journal’ –
meaning journal article – has been removed because it was
confusing)
If you are entering output types other than journal articles, books,
book chapters and conference contributions check with the research
and information manager how to record them.
Check that the correct title has been given in full and that it is
spelled correctly. As well helping panels find each paper, this
wording will appear on the RAE website when everything is
published in 2009.
Make sure all are listed and identify external co-authors.
External means they were not students or staff here at all in 20012007
Each journal has an ISSN, find it here: www.bl.co.uk. All papers in
the same journal (regardless of volume or year) will have the same
ISSN. However – some journals have a different ISSN for their print
and electronic version. It’s not crucial which is given because we’ll
also be using DOIs (see below)
All books have an ISBN and this must be listed for books or
chapters.
Most journal articles will have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
which must be provided if available
Enter references into the search engine here:
www.crossref.org/freeTextQuery.
If the first attempt is unsuccessful please keep trying - only certain
formats are recognised by the system and you may need to
experiment with the layout of your search string to get results.
A brief commentary on each item should be provided for the dress
rehearsal, indicating its significance, impact or outcomes (eg prizes,
invitations to speak, grant renewal).
Commentaries must be based in fact. Do not summarise the topic or
methodology of the output or attempt to comment on its quality.
Where relevant, follow the panel’s specific guidance for this. NB
UoA leaders will circulate additional guidance where relevant.
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Entering indicators of esteem
Esteem indicators should be entered using the research information section of PIP,
accessed from the Personal Information Portal application main menu. The
information entered should be made available to the PIP RAE software tool by setting
the appropriate access controls (see above).
Use a common sense approach to enter indicators of esteem under the most suitable
heading.
Learned Society Involvement
Enter the name of the society and your role – e.g. Member, Chairman etc.
Start and end dates may be entered as appropriate – either month and year, or just
year.
If membership is ongoing you don’t need to enter an end date.
Editorial Roles
Enter the journal name and your role – e.g. editor, editorial board member.
A description of the journal may be provided. You should include this if it is likely be
useful to the person putting the RAE submission together.
Conference Participation
Enter the name of the conference and select your role from the dropdown list. You
can indicate the type of paper presented using the dropdown list. Audience type may
be selected from the list if relevant.
Details of conference papers can be entered in the publications section so you are not
asked to repeat details of papers here. Include any further information likely to be
relevant to the RAE submission, or leave the further details field blank.
Prizes and Awards
Use the extra information field to include any additional details relevant to the RAE
submission.
Independent Reviews of Research Material
Where relevant, this field should be used to describe reviews of your work. Some
panels consider independent reviews to be an indicator of esteem. Check the relevant
criteria if unsure (see notes at the top of this document).
Patents
Some patents may be relevant to RAE submissions. The ‘description’ field is optional.
It could be used to include any additional information likely to be of use in preparing
the RAE submission.
Visiting Appointments, Lectures, Seminars and Workshops
Enter anything likely to contribute to the RAE submission, consulting the relevant
criteria if necessary. Enter start and end dates, or a single date as appropriate. The
further details field may be used to enter information which isn’t captured in the
type/title fields. All fields are optional so just work out which combination of fields
makes most sense for the type of appointment you want to talk about.
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Consultancy, Advisory Work and Professional Practice
Include details of any relevant work conducted outside the University sector. You
may wish to give precise details of ‘indicators of esteem’ in this context. It is unlikely
all of the following categories will fit your area of work, you should enter information
into those which are most relevant using only those fields which you consider most
suitable for describing your work.
Membership of Professional and Policy-Related Bodies and Committees
Include details of any relevant committees and bodies with which you have been
involved outside the University sector.
Links to Commercial Organisations
Include details of organisations University sector with which you have relevant links.
Research Collaboration
Summarise your involvement in significant collaborative projects. All fields other
than the date are free text, so just include the information you think is most important.
Then check the finished item looks like it would make sense to someone reading it.
Grants, Contracts and Studentships
Include details of major awards indicating peer esteem.
NB income and student information for forms RA3 and RA4 to be provided centrally.
You don’t have to list all of your grants etc here although the information may be
useful in the broader context of PIP.
Exhibitions and Performance
This category may be relevant to research in some areas. Again, use the most suitable
fields to describe your work, or simply enter a summary in the ‘description’ field.
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