Reflections on the 2008 United Kingdom Research Assessment Exercise for Town and Country Planning and closely associated disciplines

This article reflects on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise conducted in the UK for Town and Country Planning and closely associated disciplines. It explains the pattern of submissions from different UK universities, and the organisational structure, guiding principles and working methods. It explains how the quality criteria were interpreted and discusses the quality levels achieved and the key research metrics in the field. It assesses the health of the sub-fields and the field as a whole, and concludes with some comments on the next exercise