The genre regime of research evaluation: contradictory systems of value around academics’ writing

Abstract

This article addresses how academics navigate different kinds of prestige and different systems of value around what 'counts' in academic writing, focusing particularly on the impact of the genre regime associated with research evaluation in the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF). It draws on data from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded project working with academics across different disciplines and different institutions in England. We interviewed people about their writing practices several times, exploring their practices, life histories, institutional contexts, and the tools and resources they draw on as they write. Academics' research writing is framed within explicit institutional and departmental strategies around the numbers and publication venues of research outputs, driven by institutions' need to succeed in the national competitive research evaluation system. Such institutional strategies do not always map well onto other values systems in which academics have been trained and within which they locate themselves. The articles analyses the interviews we carried out, exploring how academics negotiate tensions between these systems of value and considering the implications of this for what is considered to be important in academic work and, therefore, what it means to be an academic.

“There’s No Discrimination, These Are Just the Rules of the Game”: Russian Scholars’ Perception of the Research Writing and Publication Process in English

“…The academic bonus system, for example, not only financially stimulates publishing in a certain language, which is English in the majority of cases, but also clearly sets preferences for a particular genre-the research article. A similar situation is observed in other countries (Tusting's [71] conclusions of the impact of the UK national research assessment process on scholars' writing practices).…”

The value of academics’ research-related online writing

“…In this sense, they oriented to institutional promotion policies as a centre of evaluative authority and positioned themselves in relation to the evaluative regime of RA writing which uses publications as a condition for career advancement (e.g. Tusting, 2018).…”

“…Evaluative regimes can thus be understood as value systems that shape genres associated with specific domains (and institutions) in that they enable and co nstrain what writers must do in order for their writing to be accepted and valued by their target audiences. However, evaluations of what counts as acceptable writing in one domain might orient to different centres of evaluative authority (Blommaert, 2010), for instance, managerial and discipline-specific principles in the case of RA writing (Tusting, 2018). Hybrid genres, such as blogs that are situated between popularisation and scientific writing (Mauranen, 2013), might require the writers to orient to more diversified centres of evaluative authority.…”

“You become academic royalty once you’ve published”: A social practice exploration of identity in academic writing

“…Academics face enormous pressure to become active participants in knowledge construction and dissemination. The ubiquitous 'publish or perish' mantra gives expression to how the worth, status and reputation of individuals and institutions become correlated to their levels of publication production (Canagarajah, 2002;Thomson & Kamler, 2013;Hyland, 2016;Nygaard, 2017;Curry & Lillis, 2018;Tusting, 2018). Academic publication offers academics the primary means of contributing and interacting with their broader disciplinary and intellectual communities (Curry & Lillis, 2013;Heron, Gravett & Yakovchuk, 2020).…”

“…However, this aspect of an academic's role has become aligned with the commodification of knowledge production (Curry & Lillis, 2018) and "performative" (Thomson & Kamler, 2013:5) and "evaluation regimes" (Lillis (2012) in Curry & Lillis, 2019:1). While these pressures are acknowledged as a reality of academic life, a small body of research is interrogating the publish or perish trend and its consequences (Curry & Lillis, 2013;2014;2019;Nygaard, 2017;Tusting, 2018;Heron et al, 2020). This research offers insight into the experiences and responses of academics and institutions to these performative publication regimes.…”