Job application - publications

[Alaimo]

I'm working on a job application for a position at a UK university (in a social sciences department). As part of the application I need to upload five of my publications.

I have a number of sole/lead-authored publications that have never been evaluated, but I think would probably be rated 3 in the REF (they're good papers in good journals, but not the absolute top). I also have two co-authored papers, which have both been rated 4 in internal evaluations.

What is the best strategy here?

• two co-authored 4 publications + three lead-authored 3 publications
• one co-authored 4 publication + four lead-authored 3 publications

I think that with either combination I can demonstrate my particular areas of expertise, intellectual trajectory, etc. so there isn't much difference from that point of view. However, one difference is that the co-authored papers are more recent, so don't have many citations yet.

I'd say the first one. You can add a note to your CV that they have been internally-reviewed as 4*.

Looking ahead to the next REF, assuming it's the same, 4 counts for a lot lot more than 3.

Being a co-author is actually an advantage to your department, so long as the co-authors are at a different institution - so that if they also enter the paper, it doesn't count against your entry. The department can only enter a paper once, even if two or more people in the department have worked on it.

If the shortlisters read your full CV they will see the other lead-authored work on it.

4 is worth a lot more than 3. co-author doesn't matter, unless you are author 9 of 15 or something and even then it doesn't really matter.

Thanks both - that's helpful! One of the 4* papers was published in early 2020, so has (as far as I'm aware) been included in the REF2021 / won't be eligible for the next one. I don't know if that matters?

Impossible to say! What were you asked to do? If they asked you to upload your 5 best papers, then do that. If you want to signal your competitiveness for the next REF, you can say on your CV that x of your papers were entered last time, and for the next REF you already have y papers at 4 and z papers at 3. It's early in the cycle, so they would be looking for evidence that you will deliver really good papers over the cycle.

It also depends on the job. If it's permanent teaching and research lectureship, they will be bearing your REF competitiveness in mind, so a REF narrative will be useful. But it won't matter for all jobs.

Realistically, we don't know what the rules on portability will be for the next REF, so you should focus on demonstrating that you can write papers that are likely to score highly in the REF and would do so if you came to work for them.

Since you can list all your publications on your CV and indicate that two of them were reviewed internally as being 4* quality, I would choose the five papers that you think are best in terms of the rigor and scope of the work. Most people will at most only flick through them to see their focus and what methods, theories, models, etc. you use, and whether there is a coherence to your work as a whole. Everything else is evident from your list of publications in your CV.