Contribution to Knowledge and understanding

For the purposes of the REF, research is defined as a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared. This includes:

• work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, culture, society, and/or to the public and voluntary sectors
• scholarship, which is defined for the REF as the creation, development and maintenance of the intellectual infrastructure of subjects and disciplines, in forms such as dictionaries, scholarly editions, catalogues and contributions to major research databases
• the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights
• the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction
• Effectively shared includes research that is published, disseminated or made publicly available in the form of assessable research outputs, and confidential reports. 

The definition of research excludes:

• the routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques
• the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research

To be eligible for submission to REF 2029 outputs must meet the REF definition of research and have been published, including early online publication, between 1 Jan 2021 and 31 Dec 2028.

In addition to the criteria above the research leading to the output must have been undertaken at, or enabled by, the Institution. This is also referred to as a demonstrable and substantive link to the submitting institution. Institutions need to provide evidence of a substantive link to an output via an author’s eligible employment contract with the institution.

Outputs previously submitted to REF 2021, including items delayed due to COVID-19, cannot be submitted to REF 2029.

The REF definition of research and further information on the substantive link to the submitting institution can be found in the next sections.

Meeting open access criteria for REF 2029 is in addition to output eligibility conditions and a substantive link to the institution.

For journal articles and conference contributions with an ISSN to be eligible for REF 2029 all open access requirements must be met, or an appropriate exemption applied.

Open Access guidance for journal articles and conference papers can be found further down this page.

Substantive link to a submitted output

For REF 2029 Institutions must be able to demonstrate a substantive link to any submitted output.  A substantive link describes the relationship between the institution and research leading to an output first made publicly available, including early online, during the output eligibility period (1 January 2021 to 31 December 2028).

A substantive link must be evidenced through an eligible employment relationship with an author (or equivalent) who has made a significant research contribution to the output. An eligible employment relationship is defined as a contract with a minimum of 0.2 FTE for at least 12 months continuous employment, and a role descriptor that includes an explicit expectation of research activity within the role.

Outputs published by staff on a non-eligible contract at the institution may be considered for inclusion if the member of staff moves from a non-eligible contract to an eligible contract during the REF period. For example, a research assistant who takes up a role of independent research fellow with no break in employment.

Eligible employment relationships for outputs are distinct from staff eligibility and inclusion in the HESA volume measure.

Output Portability

An eligible employment relationship must have occurred, either at the point at which the submitted output was first made publicly available, or before the submitted output was first made publicly available.

For new members of staff this means that outputs published, including early online publication, before a member of staff joins the institution are not eligible for submission by the new institution. However, due to the nature of long form/long process outputs, there is a time limited exception for new staff joining an institution, to allow long form outputs to be included in the new institution’s submission. Further guidance will be issued by REF on this in due course.

For former staff this means that outputs can be submitted provided the publication date of the output falls before the date of departure, or where evidence is provided that the research resulting in the output was carried out at the institution during their employment period, and the member of staff was not subject to compulsory redundancy.  Evidence of an institutions substantive link to the output, where an output is published after a member of staff has left, can include pre-publication material or evidence of a relevant grant that supported the research.

The REF 2021 terminology of double weighting has been replaced with multiple-weighting, further guidance will be released by the individual REF Panels in relation to outputs of extended size and scope which may count for more than two outputs.

REF 2029 will continue to use reserve outputs for multiple-weighted outputs. This is similar to REF 2021 but will include ordering of reserve items to indicate items as first reserve, second reserve, etc.

Due to the decoupling of staff from outputs in REF2029, there are no minimum or maximum submission limits for outputs from any author.

Although there is no minimum or maximum limit, output submissions to each unit of assessment should be representative of the range and diversity of research activity in that unit.  

Inviting reviewers

An Template email: invitation for external reviewers is available to support Schools in the process of inviting external reviewers. 

All external reviewers must be approved by the University. Once an individual has agreed to act as an external reviewer, please notify n.strong@abdn.ac.uk and n.oren@abdn.ac.uk and provide details of the external reviewers.

Guidance for Reviewers

The sub panel guidance for REF 2029 has not yet been released, however we have produced some Summary guidance for external review of outputs based on details from REF 2021, which can be shared with reviewers. This guidance will be updated once the sub panel guidance for REF 2029 is released. 

Further guidance drawn from REF 2021, for each of the sub panels, can be found below:

• REF 2021 Reviewer guidance - Panel A
• REF 2021 Reviewer guidance - Panel B
• REF 2021 Reviewer guidance - Panel C
• REF 2021 Reviewer guidance - Panel D

Purpose and use of external reviews

External reviews help to calibrate scores provided by internal reviewers, improve future reviewing exercises, and increase the likelihood of 3* and 4* outputs being submitted to REF.

It is expected that feedback from external reviewers will be provided to authors and internal reviewers for training purposes, as well as DoRs and REF leads to allow adjustments to internal scores. The feedback will also be used centrally to improve grade prediction, and as part of REF output selection.

External reviewers are expected to provide feedback using an online form which is similar to the template used in internal reviews, and to score outputs on a 13-point scale. A review deadline no later than 31 January 2026, should be set for outputs sent for external review in the first round of funding.

Setting up and paying reviewers

Schools are responsible for finding external reviewers; selecting and sending outputs for review; organising payment to externals, and claiming back funds from the central budget. The process should broadly follow these steps:

• Schools set up external reviewers using the Supplier set up form: REF external reviewers
• External reviewers set up as a supplier
• Requisition raised for payment once review has been received from the external reviewer
• Schools pay external reviewer 
• Schools claim funds from the central budget
• Funds are journaled to Schools

If you have any questions about this process please email n.strong@abdn.ac.uk 

For each unit of assessment submitted to REF the number of outputs required is calculated at 2.5 outputs per FTE (full time equivalent) of volume-contributing staff, rounded to the nearest whole number; values at .5 are rounded up.

For example a unit of assessment with an average volume measure of 10 FTE would be required to submit 25 Outputs to REF 2029.

The FTE of volume contributing staff is calculated based on averaged values from HESA staff returns in 2025/26 and 2026/27, with a pilot year running in 2024/25.

For REF 2029 allocation of outputs to a Unit of Assessment (UoA) is separate and distinct to the allocation of staff to a UoA. Outputs are not tied to specific researchers, and there is no requirement for the output to be submitted to the same UoA as the author(s)

Outputs can be submitted to any appropriate UoA based on the output’s subject matter, the UoA descriptors, and the overall research strategy of the institution.

Outputs can also be submitted more than once, as long as the output meaningfully aligns with each of the unit descriptors. This flexibility aims to allow interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary outputs, and those with relevance to multiple UoAs, to be assessed by relevant units.

REF do however note that outputs submitted to more than two UoAs are more likely to be audited to ensure meaningful alignment to the submitted unit.

Standard data requirements such as Output number, Date when output first became publicly available, Type of output, Title of output, DOI where available, request for cross-referral, number of co-authors, supplementary information, and confidentiality remain the same as they were in REF 2021

In addition to the standard data requirements used in REF 2021 new fields will be recorded for REF eligible outputs in REF 2029, these include

• • HESA staff identifiers
  • a flag to indicate former staff
  • a flag to indicate a pre-publication substantive link

Further panel guidance is expected in 2026 and will include additional data requirements.