Citation counts and the Research Assessment Exercise V

Abstract 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 ®rst time available from the RAE Web site. This study, therefore, used the speci®c submission details of authors and their publications. Using the Spearman rank-order correlation coef®cient, all results showed high statistically signi®cant correlation between the RAE result and citation counts. The results were signi®cant at 0.01 per cent. The ®ndings con®rm 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 con®rm ®nal rankings