HEFCE are still missing a trick in not adopting citations analysis. But plans for the REF have at least become more realistic about what the external impacts of academic work are

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) remains deeply conservative in not using citations analysis for academic assessment. But it has now changed its previous policies of ‘asking for the moon’ when judging the external impacts of academic research. Patrick Dunleavy finds that HEFCE’s definition of what counts as an external impact has been greatly broadened. The criteria for allocating ‘star’ numbers to impacts case studies have become a lot simpler and more sensible. And a new ‘impacts template’ form has been introduced, although only impact case studies will attract funding. The template should at least allow universities and departments to offer more by way of systematic metrics of their overall impacts activity, to set their case studies in context.