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[sockysockthesockman]

I'm an American with no prior experience of the British academic system, so please bear with me. I've read about the REF on this forum from time to time; the consensus seems to be that people will need 4 high quality publications in print by 2013 at the latest for the 2014 REF.

My question is: if I'm lucky enough to get a JRF for the next three years (2012-15), will I be held to the same REF standards as permanent faculty? If so, do previous publications count toward that total (even if they're a few years old now)?

Also, should I address the REF in my upcoming JRF interview?

[mleok]

As a JRF, you are not a permanent member of the academic staff (faculty), so you would not be included in the REF submission, therefore the REF standards won't be directly relevant, although they would clearly be concerned about your research achievements and potential. You might find the following document (intended for mathematicians) relevant to your search for a JRF.

http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~twk/fellow.pdf

[oddlyodd]

Details about the REF are here: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/

I think the previous poster may be right in saying that JRFs don't count in the REF, but that may depend on the subject. I was a temporary lecturer at another institution during the previous REF (known as RAE), and I had to submit my publications. If you've got 4 good publications published between 2009 and late 2013, then they may want to enter you into it. This may be a good question to ask during the interview, though do read up on the REF first so that you don't sound clueless about it. Do you have any contacts in your field who work at the university?: ask them what the timeline for internal submission is. My institution is already undergoing a 'mock REF'.

[wegie]

As far as I can see, nothing in the definition of Category A staff (para 78) precludes somebody on a fixed term contract. And like OddlyOdd, I was submitted in a previous RAE despite being on a one year contract. What might exclude JRFs would be para 80 of the directions, the section applying to the definition of a research assistant -- except that the whole point of being a JRF is that it's an opportunity for independent research, which would automatically place one squarely in Category A.

A little digging around the Oxford web site has produced fairly strong indications that JRFs can and may be submitted for the REF: the current advert for a JRF in Chemistry at Merton, for instance.

Socky, I'd ask at your interview. My gut feeling, given that I assume you'll only be in post for a year come the census date, is that they may want only one piece of REF-returnable work, plus one piece for whatever comes after the REF, and that they would prefer it if the work was produced whilst you are in post. But a combination of JRF and REF does make reading the entrails even more difficult than usual.

[science_expat]

What's a JRF?

Assuming it's a fellowship - the person would be eligible to be included in the REF - as s/he would be considered to be an independent research. However, contract research staff who are funded on someone else's grant are not considered to be independent and hence cannot be submitted to the REF.

[wegie]

What's a JRF?

Junior Research Fellowship. Usually held at an Oxford or Cambridge college or department (although there are early career development equivalents funded by the research councils, aren't there?). Awarded to somebody usually no more than a couple of years post PhD or at an equivalent early stage in their research career for a fixed term (three or five years are common). Usually they come with very few strings indeed: "research in any area of Modern (after 1750) British History" or "research in any area of the geological sciences" would not be unheard of as descriptions.

Assuming it's a fellowship - the person would be eligible to be included in the REF - as s/he would be considered to be an independent research. However, contract research staff who are funded on someone else's grant are not considered to be independent and hence cannot be submitted to the REF.

That's what I was thinking, given the way that JRFs are normally described. And about half of the JRFs I've seen advertised recently have stated that the holder would be expected to contribute to the college's REF submission -- but some JRFs *don't* say that, even when the terms under which they would be held seem identical to other JRFs that are expected to produce REF-able outputs.