Research assessment and scholarly communication via a demographic analysis of journal submissions to ten Units of Assessment in the 2001 RAE

This thesis analyses secondary data from the 2001 RAE, specifically journal submission data, for ten selected Units of Assessment (UoA). This data was viewed as a 'population' or sample, not for the purpose of making generalisations but for a demographic study of the size, structure and pattern of submitted titles, in order to ascertain how closely, or even whether, they 'fitted' within the subject area of the UoAs. Three perspectives were developed and used; research assessment via published output (policy perspective); scholarly communication (communication perspective); and disciplinary and subject boundary perspective (the academic perspective). A literature review of these three areas is provided.