Why the REF is like writing a novel

Last week I went to a workshop that the NCCPE was running on developing impact case studies for the REF.  The REF is, unsurprisingly, on the minds of a lot of people within the University at the moment so it was a good time to get some tips on writing a good impact case study.

The first revelation of the day was that we weren't going to focus on the evidence required for a case study.  So far, the majority of my thinking around the REF has concentrated on coming up with ways of developing evidence of reach and significance; so I was expecting the workshop to include techniques and methodologies for producing this evidence.  However, apart from a mention that the REF panel will appreciate the challenge of gathering evidence retrospectively, we left that aspect of the case studies alone.

In the REF pilot, the highest scoring case studies were those which had a coherent narrative.  So instead of thinking about evidence, we found ourselves looking at the narrative arc and how the format of the case studies could be used to fit the progression of a story.  This is not to say that a good case study should be a work of fiction - the quality of the writing is always going to be less important than the story it tells.  But like all good novels, you need a narrative that hooks the reader and keeps them involved.  At the heart of this is the research itself, which should be thought of as the main character in the story.  If you don’t engage with the main character it can be quite hard to maintain your interest in the novel, as I have found on many occasions (but I won’t digress by providing examples!).  Once this is done, there is only the not so small task of describing the impact, both in summary and in more detail, and providing the evidence for the research and impacts.  And all of this in a very limited word count – this is definitely no War and Peace.

Bearing all of this in mind, there are still challenges to face with writing impact case studies – not least the difficulty of attributing impact and disentangling it from all the other factors that might have affected the outcomes.  One helpful suggestion from the audience was to use language that focused on the contribution that the research and impact had, rather than making over-ambitious claims about impact in a vacuum.  And of course there is still work to do in writing and honing the impact case studies at the University.  But hopefully we now have some more techniques to help us with making the most of the impressive impact that research here has had, whether it’s on the economy, culture, policy or society.

If you would like advice on writing an impact case study, you can contact Kate Miller on email: kate.miller@bristol.ac.uk.