Citation counts and the Research Assessment Exercise V : Archaeology and the 2001 RAE

A citation study of the 692 staff that makes up unit of assessment 58 (archaeology), in the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was undertaken. Unlike earlier studies, which were obliged to make assumptions on who and what had been submitted for assessment, these were, for the first time available from the RAE Web site. This study, therefore, used the specific submission details of authors and their publications. Using the Spearman rank‐order correlation coefficient, all results showed high statistically significant correlation between the RAE result and citation counts. The results were significant at 0.01 per cent. The findings confirm earlier studies. Given the comparative cost and ease of citation analysis, it is recommended that, correctly applied, it should be the initial tool of assessment for the RAE. Panel members would then exercise their judgement and skill to confirm final rankings.