Why research assessment exercises are a bad thing

Abstract

In the UK a Research Assessment Exercise (henceforth abbreviated to RAE) was introduced in 1986 by Thatcher, and was continued by Blair. Now the idea seems to be catching on, and RAEs are being introduced in many countries. But are such RAEs really a good thing? In this paper I want to argue that they are not. The rationale for conducting an RAE is presumably that it will improve research output. However I will show that an RAE is likely to have the opposite effect, and make the quality of research produced worse than it was before.