Annex B: UoA descriptors and taxonomies – Main Panel C

Descriptor

UoA 13 covers all forms of historical, theoretical, technical, policy, practice-based, and applied research concerned with the planning, design, construction, functionality and use, conservation, assessment, analysis, interpretation, management, regulation, and governance of built environments in rural and urban settings. These concerns situate within, but are not confined to, the fields of architecture; building and construction; conservation and heritage; environment, climate and health; housing and regeneration; landscape; planning; real estate; surveying and geomatics; transport and mobilities; urban design; and urbanisation and development. Submissions to UoA 13 will be centrally concerned with the built environment – its social, economic, environmental, legal and regulatory, financial, technological and digital, historical and cultural dimensions – and extend to system-level and process-focused analysis and to comparative and international perspectives. Research submitted to UoA 13 stretches from the physical sciences and engineering to social sciences and humanities, being concerned with infrastructures, places, economies, environments, people and communities. Submissions may target critical built environment challenges, around growth, competitiveness, sustainability, justice and inequalities, and/or the evolving and future use of key technologies, including AI, in the research process or as a substantive research focus.

The built environment, alongside human-nature interactions in the natural environment, will provide the context and major field of application for research submitted to this unit of assessment. Submissions will make a contribution, including through potential application, to advancing knowledge and understanding in architecture, built environment, and planning. Submissions to UoA 13 will originate from a broad range of disciplines, draw upon diverse research methodologies and comprise a wide variety of output forms across the spectrum of fundamental, applied, pedagogical, policy, and practice-based research. Submitted research may span disciplinary and methodological boundaries.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Architecture
2. Building and Construction
3. Conservation and Heritage
4. Environment, Climate and Health
5. Housing and Regeneration
6. Landscape
7. Planning
8. Real Estate
9. Surveying and Geomatics
10. Transport and Mobilities
11. Urban Design
12. Urbanisation and Development
13. Other, aligning with the UoA 13 descriptor
14. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Active travel
2. Adaptive reuse
3. Architectural and construction technologies
4. Architectural and urban sciences
5. Architectural and urban simulation
6. Architectural design
7. Architectural history and theory
8. Architectural, landscape and urban humanities
9. Building and infrastructure performance
10. Building and urban heritage and conservation
11. Building services engineering
12. Civil and structural engineering
13. Climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience
14. Computational methods
15. Construction
16. Digital architecture and technologies
17. Digital planning
18. Disasters, conflicts, crises and reconstruction
19. Ecosystems, ecology and nature recovery
20. Energy
21. Engineering surveying
22. Environmental humanities
23. Environmental quality and health
24. Facilities management
25. Fire safety engineering
26. Fluid mechanics and dynamics
27. Health and safety in the built environment
28. Housing studies
29. Infrastructures
30. Interior design
31. Land, building and quantity surveying
32. Land, construction and project management
33. Landscape and digital landscape studies
34. Landscape planning and design
35. Land-use planning
36. Logistics
37. Marine and coastal planning
38. Nature based solutions
39. Pedagogy
40. Planning history and theory
41. Post-colonial studies
42. Property development
43. Property auctioneering and valuation
44. Real estate finance and economics
45. Regenerative design
46. Research methods
47. Resource management and circularity
48. Risk management
49. Space, culture and design
50. Spatial analytics
51. Spatial and territorial planning
52. Supply chains and life cycle analysis
53. Sustainability and the built environment
54. Transport and health
55. Transport and highways engineering
56. Transport modelling
57. Transport planning
58. Urban design
59. Urban regeneration
60. Urban studies
61. Urban, regional and rural planning

Boundaries

The sub-panel expects submissions in this UoA from all areas of built environment research, as defined above, and expects that most of the research activity submitted will have made a direct contribution to the UoA as characterised in the UoA descriptor. It recognises and welcomes, however, the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research in this area, and expects that submissions may contain outputs that not only make contributions to this UoA and other cognate disciplines but also to UoAs that extend beyond traditional cognate disciplines.

Descriptor

The UoA covers all aspects of research – conceptual, methodological, substantive and applied – conducted within the disciplines of Geography and Environmental Studies, as broadly defined, and contributing to their interdisciplinary collaborations. This research embraces a wide range of enquiries into natural, environmental and human phenomena, and their interrelationships in particular systems, contexts and cultures, periods and places, both in the UK and internationally. In Geography, submitted research may include work from all fields of physical and human geography (for example, ecosystem science; climatology; environmental processes; environmental geography; environmental and climate change; cartographies, geospatial and data science; geomorphology, glaciology; hydrology; ocean and water science; quaternary science and palaeoenvironments; soil science; hazards and risk; Black, cultural, decolonial, development, digital, economic, feminist, gender, health, heritage, historical, Indigenous, legal, political, population, queer, race, rural, social, transport and urban geographies; geohumanities; spatial theory; geographical information sciences and earth observation); work that combines any of these fields or in conjunction with aligned disciplines (for example, in socio-ecological systems, earth systems, natural resource governance); and work that uses a wide range of available methods, from science-based to humanistic and participatory to community-led, including numerical, computational, theoretical, experimental, modelling, creative, archival and field-based. In Environmental Studies, submitted research may include work in any area of the field, including those also present in environmental geography (for example, ecosystems and natural capital; biodiversity; energy; environmental economics, politics, policy and practice; sustainability); some aspects of environmental science (for example, conservation, ecology, environmental pollution and resource management); and environmental assessment and decision support systems.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Physical geography
2. Human geography
3. Environmental geography
4. Environmental studies
5. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. AI and machine learning
2. Applied environmental sciences
3. Arts-led and creative approaches
4. Biodiversity
5. Black geographies
6. Climate science and climatology
7. Coastal and shallow-marine science
8. Cultural geography
9. Decolonial geographies
10. Development geography
11. Digital geographies
12. Disability geographies
13. Earth surface processes
14. Landscape evolution modelling
15. Ecology
16. Economic geography
17. Ecosystem services
18. Emergency and disaster management
19. Energy geographies
20. Environmental and climate change
21. Environmental and countryside management
22. Environmental history
23. Environmental impact assessment
24. Food geographies
25. Freshwater biology
26. Gender and feminist geographies
27. Environmental geochemistry
28. Geographical information systems
29. Geographies of sexualities
30. Geohumanities
31. Landform interpretation using geophysics
32. Geospatial science
33. Geotechnical engineering
34. Glaciology and cryospheric systems
35. Hazards and risk
36. Health geographies
37. Historical geography
38. Histories of geography
39. Hydrogeology
40. Hydrology
41. Indigenous geographies
42. Labour geography
43. Land use and land cover
44. Leisure and tourism geographies
45. Meteorology
46. Migration and mobilities
47. More-than-human geographies
48. Ocean sciences
49. Peatlands and wetlands
50. Political ecology
51. Political geography
52. Population geography
53. Qualitative analysis
54. Quaternary science and palaeoenvironments
55. Queer and trans geographies
56. Regional studies
57. Remote sensing
58. Rural geography
59. Sedimentary processes and deposits
60. Social geography
61. Statistics and quantitative analysis
62. Transport geography
63. Urban and regional planning
64. Urban geography
65. Water science and management

Boundaries

Given the breadth of the subject matter of UoA 14, it is inevitable that the exemplification above is not exhaustive and that there will be some overlaps with other UoAs, located both in Main Panel C and in other main panels and that submission may include work that is close to the boundaries of the UoA. In areas where there is significant overlap between UoA 14 and another UoA, it is expected that whole submissions will be made in the UoA appropriate to the academic context and research environment in which the research was undertaken, and with the most appropriate range of expertise for the body of work as a whole.

Descriptor

In Archaeology, submitted research may cover all fields of the subject, regionally and worldwide. For example, including but not limited to: archaeological theory and historiography; archaeological science and archaeological methods; the archaeology of human origins and evolution; prehistoric societies; early civilisations (including associated text-based studies and classical archaeology); medieval, historical, industrial, and contemporary archaeology; colonial and postcolonial archaeology; material culture studies; environmental, landscape and maritime archaeology; heritage and museum studies; public and community archaeology; archaeological conservation, heritage science, forensic archaeology and anthropology.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Archaeological theory and historiography
2. Archaeological science
3. Archaeological methods
4. Human origins and evolution
5. Prehistoric societies
6. Early civilisations (including associated text-based studies and classical archaeology)
7. Medieval, historical, industrial, and contemporary archaeology
8. Colonial and postcolonial archaeology
9. Material culture studies
10. Environmental, landscape and maritime archaeology
11. Heritage and museum studies
12. Public and community archaeology
13. Archaeological conservation
14. Heritage science
15. Forensic archaeology and anthropology
16. Other (please specify)
17. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Archaeological methods
2. Landscape studies
3. Archaeological excavation
4. Archaeological survey
5. Remote sensing and geophysical survey
6. Marine archaeology
7. Maritime archaeology
8. Archaeological theory
9. Archaeological historiography
10. Experimental archaeology
11. Ethnoarchaeology
12. Colonial and postcolonial archaeology
13. Heritage studies
14. Museum studies
15. Public and community archaeology
16. Heritage science
17. Archaeological conservation
18. Buildings archaeology
19. Archaeological pedagogy
20. Digital archaeology and digital heritage
21. Archaeology of human origins and evolution
22. Palaeolithic archaeology
23. Mesolithic archaeology
24. Neolithic archaeology
25. Bronze Age archaeology
26. Iron Age archaeology
27. Roman archaeology
28. Medieval archaeology
29. Post-medieval archaeology
30. Industrial archaeology
31. Contemporary archaeology
32. African archaeology
33. Archaeology of the Americas
34. Early civilisations of south-west Asia (and related historical and textual studies)
35. Egyptian archaeology (and related historical and textual studies)
36. Early civilisations (World – for example, China, S Asia, and so on)
37. Early civilisations of the Mediterranean (including classical, historical and textual studies)
38. Archaeological science: organic
39. Archaeological science: inorganic
40. Archaeological dating
41. Computational modelling
42. Bioarchaeology
43. Human osteology
44. Biological anthropology
45. Zooarchaeology
46. Biomolecular archaeology (aDNA, stable isotopes, proteomics, residue analysis and so on)
47. Forensic archaeology and anthropology
48. Environmental archaeology
49. Palaeoenvironmental archaeology and palaeoecology
50. Human ecology
51. Archaeobotany
52. Geoarchaeology
53. Material culture and artefact studies
54. Archaeometallurgy
55. Lithic analysis
56. Ceramic and glass analysis
57. Numismatics
58. Other (please specify)

Boundaries

Submitting units are encouraged to submit their strongest work irrespective of the form of output or the extent of its interdisciplinary nature, even if the research is at the boundaries of the UoA. There could be overlaps with any UoA, particularly UoA 1 (Clinical Medicine), UoA 5 (Biological Sciences) in Main Panel A; UoA 7 (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences) in Main Panel B; UoA 14 (Geography and Environmental Studies) and UoA 22 (Anthropology and Development Studies) in Main Panel C; and UoA 28 (History), UoA 29 (Classics) and UoA 34 (Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management) in Main Panel D. The sub-panel expects to receive by cross-referral, or be involved in joint assessment of, archaeological research that has been submitted to other sub-panels because of its interdisciplinary character or as part of multi-subject or multi-disciplinary submissions grouped so as to attain critical mass. Where judged necessary by the sub-panel for the assessment of outputs, expertise will be augmented by additional assessors, or requests for cross-referral and/or joint assessment to other relevant UoAs.

Descriptor

The UoA is fully inclusive of all fields in economics and econometrics. Research of all types, quantitative or qualitative – including, but not limited to, applied, experimental, methodological or theoretical – will be considered of equal standing, irrespective of the form of output.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Behavioural and experimental economics
2. Development economics and growth
3. Developments in economic thought
4. Economic geography
5. Economic history
6. Econometrics and statistical methods
7. Environmental and resource economics
8. Finance
9. Industrial organisation
10. International economics
11. Labour economics
12. Macroeconomics
13. Microeconomics
14. Public economics
15. Other
16. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Agriculture and natural resource economics
2. Behavioural economics
3. Business economics
4. Comparative economic systems
5. Computational econometrics
6. Cultural economics
7. Development economics
8. Economic geography
9. Economic growth
10. Economic history
11. Economics education and pedagogy
12. Education economics
13. Environmental economics
14. Experimental economics
15. Family economics
16. Financial econometrics
17. Financial economics
18. Game theory
19. Gender economics
20. Health economics
21. Heterodox approaches
22. History of economic thought
23. Industrial organisation
24. International and trade economics
25. Labour economics
26. Law and economics
27. Macroeconometrics
28. Macroeconomics
29. Mathematical economics
30. Microeconomic theory
31. Microeconometrics
32. Monetary economics
33. Panel data
34. Political economy
35. Population and demographic economics
36. Productivity, innovation and technological change
37. Public economics
38. Quantitative economics
39. Regional economics
40. Role of economics and economists
41. Sectoral economic studies (sports, tourism, real estate, transport, and so on)
42. Social statistics
43. Spatial econometrics
44. Time series econometrics
45. Urban economics
46. Other

Boundaries

Economics is a broad discipline. As such, we anticipate boundaries with many other UoAs, including but not limited to UoA 2 (Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care), UoA 4 (Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience), UoA 5 (Biological Sciences), UoA 10 (Mathematical Sciences), UoA 11 (Computer Science and Informatics), UoA 14 (Geography and Environmental Studies), UoA 17 (Business and Management Studies), UoA 19 (Politics and International Studies), UoA 20 (Social Work and Social Policy), UoA 22 (Anthropology and Development Studies), UoA 23 (Education), UoA 28 (History), UoA 30 (Philosophy).

Descriptor

The UoA includes (but is not restricted to) the areas of: accounting; banking; business analytics; business and industrial economics; business ethics; business history; business-related sustainability; consumer behaviour; corporate governance; corporate social responsibility; critical management studies; employment relations; entrepreneurship; finance; human resource management; information systems management; innovation management; international business; knowledge management; leadership; leisure, tourism and sports management; management education and learning; management science and operations research; marketing; operations management; organisational psychology; organisational studies; project management; public sector management and public policy; risk management; service management; small business; strategic management; supply chain management; technology management; third sector management; and any other field or sub-field aligned to business and management.  

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Accounting
2. Banking and finance 
3. Business and industrial economics 
4. Business ethics, responsibility and sustainability 
5. Business history 
6. Critical management studies 
7. Employment relations and human resource management 
8. Entrepreneurship and small business 
9. Information systems management 
10. Innovation, knowledge and technology management
11. International business 
12. Leadership 
13. Leisure, tourism and sports management
14. Management education and learning 
15. Management science and operations research 
16. Marketing and consumer behaviour 
17. Operations and supply chain management 
18. Organisational psychology and organisational studies
19. Public sector management and public policy
20. Strategic management 
21. Any other field or sub-field aligned to business and management
22. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Accounting
2. Banking 
3. Business analytics 
4. Business and industrial economics 
5. Business ethics 
6. Business history 
7. Business law 
8. Business-related sustainability 
9. Consumer behaviour 
10. Corporate governance 
11. Corporate social responsibility 
12. Critical management studies 
13. Employment relations
14. Entrepreneurship
15. Finance 
16. Human resource management 
17. Information systems management 
18. Innovation management 
19. International business 
20. Knowledge management 
21. Leadership 
22. Leisure, tourism and sports management
23. Management education 
24. Management learning 
25. Management science 
26. Marketing 
27. Operations management 
28. Operations research 
29. Organisational psychology 
30. Organisational studies 
31. Project management
32. Public policy 
33. Public sector management 
34. Risk management 
35. Service management 
36. Small business 
37. Strategic management 
38. Supply chain management 
39. Technology management 
40. Third sector management 
41. Any other field or sub-field aligned to business and management

Boundaries

Institutions are encouraged to submit their strongest work, irrespective of the form of output. A variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary contributions is welcome. The main panel’s preferred approach is that the majority of work submitted in a UoA is assessed by that sub-panel. Business and management is a broad discipline and it is anticipated that some of the work submitted in this UoA may overlap with the remits of other cognate UoAs. Where it is not possible for these outputs to be assessed by the sub-panel, they will be cross-referred. Sub-panel 17 (as the sub-panel for the UoA in which the work was submitted for assessment) will retain responsibility for recommending the quality profile.

Descriptor

The UoA includes all doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, comparative, critical, historical or other studies of law and legal phenomena including criminology and sociolegal studies. The sub-panel would also expect research on legal education to be submitted in this UoA.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Public law
2. Private law
3. Economic and business law and regulation
4. Social law, relationships and institutions
5. Criminal law and criminal justice
6. Criminology
7. Legal systems, courts and procedures
8. Non-UK jurisdictions, comparative and transnational law
9. Public and private international law
10. Socio-legal studies and methods
11. Theories, philosophies, concepts and histories of law
12. Legal education
13. Other legal domains, perspectives, enquiries and methods
14. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Access to justice, civil procedure, alternative dispute resolution
2. Administrative law
3. Animal law
4. Banking law, financial law
5. Business law and regulation, consumer protection
6. Charity law, wills and succession
7. Company/corporate law
8. Comparative law and methods
9. Competition law, procurement law, subsidies law
10. Constitutional law
11. Contract law
12. Criminal law
13. Criminal justice, criminal evidence and procedure, criminal courts
14. Criminology
15. Critical legal studies
16. Data protection law
17. Disability law
18. Discrimination and equality law
19. Doctrinal/positivist analysis
20. Employment and labour law
21. Energy law
22. Environmental law
23. Equity, trusts and restitution
24. EU law
25. Family and child law
26. Feminist legal studies and methods
27. Health law, medical law, medical ethics
28. Housing law
29. Human rights law
30. Intellectual property law
31. International criminal law
32. International economic law
33. International humanitarian law
34. Judging, judiciary, judicial studies
35. Jurisprudence, legal theory, philosophy of law
36. Law and race
37. Law and religions
38. Law, culture and humanities
39. Law, gender and sexuality
40. Lawyers, legal profession, legal ethics
41. Legal education
42. Legal histories, legal biographies
43. Media and communications law
44. Migration and asylum law
45. Non-UK national and regional jurisdictions
46. Private international law
47. Property law, land law, personal property law
48. Public international law and institutions
49. Roman law
50. Scots private law
51. Socio-legal studies and methods
52. Sports law
53. Tax law
54. Technology and artificial intelligence law and regulation
55. Tort law and delict
56. Transitional justice
57. Transnational legal studies
58. UK external relations law
59. Welfare law, social security law, education law
60. Other legal domains, perspectives, enquiries and methods

Boundaries

All areas of law as described above fall within the boundaries of the UoA. Law is a hybrid, multi-disciplinary subject which draws on disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Research in law may intersect with or draw upon a variety of disciplines and methodologies. The sub-panel has been constituted with a broad spread of relevant expertise to ensure informed assessment of all submissions and encourages units to submit their strongest work including research which is at the boundaries of the UoA. 

For the avoidance of doubt, it is recognised that much criminological research may fall within the boundaries of Sub-panels 18 (Law), 20 (Social Work and Social Policy) and 21 (Sociology). All three sub-panels welcome such work, which will be assessed in accordance with the arrangements noted in the Panel criteria, making use of calibration, joint assessors and cross-referral as deemed appropriate by the sub-panels.  

Descriptor

The UoA includes all areas of: Political Theory and Political Thought; Comparative Politics and European Studies; International Relations and International Studies; Governance, Public Policy, Public Administration and Political Institutions; Parties, Elections and Public Opinion; Political Economy and International Political Economy; Political Behaviour; Research Methods, Methodologies and Political Analysis; Area Studies/Regional Studies; British Politics, Government and Governance; Security and Strategic Studies; Environmental Politics and Sustainability; Feminism and Gender Studies; Political Communication. This is an indicative and non-hierarchical list, and the sub-panel is committed to an inclusive approach that reflects the traditional commitment to pluralism within the discipline.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Political theory and political thought
2. Comparative politics and European studies
3. International relations and international studies
4. Governance, public policy, public administration and political institutions
5. Parties, elections and public opinion
6. Political economy and international political economy
7. Political behaviour
8. Research methods, methodologies and political analysis
9. Area studies/regional studies
10. British politics, government and governance
11. Security and strategic studies
12. Environmental politics and sustainability
13. Feminism and gender studies
14. Political communication
15. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Normative political theory
2. History of political thought
3. Democratic theory
4. Critical theory
5. Ideology and political ideas
6. Comparative political institutions
7. Democratization populism and democratic backsliding
8. Authoritarian regimes
9. Comparative political development
10. Comparative public policy
11. Comparative federalism and decentralisation
12. Populism studies
13. International relations theory
14. Foreign policy analysis
15. Diplomacy and negotiation
16. International cooperation
17. International law, human rights and norms
18. Global governance, international aid, international development, and international organisations
19. Global health politics
20. Policy process studies
21. Policy design and evaluation
22. Evidence-based policymaking
23. Policy implementation
24. Policy learning and transfer
25. Bureaucracy and civil service studies
26. Multi-level governance and network governance
27. Regulatory governance
28. Leadership and executive politics
29. Administrative reform
30. Comparative political economy
31. International political economy
32. Welfare state politics
33. Varieties of capitalism
34. Development studies and the global south
35. Migration and refugee studies
36. Political geography
37. Ethnic and racial politics
38. Voting behaviour and elections
39. Political parties and party systems
40. Public opinion
41. Political psychology
42. Social movements and protest
43. Executive politics and leadership
44. Legislative politics and parliamentary studies
45. Judicial politics
46. Constitutional politics
47. Quantitative methods and statistics
48. Qualitative and interpretive methods and analysis
49. Experimental political science
50. Computational and big data methods
51. Teaching and pedagogy in politics and international studies
52. Environmental and climate politics
53. Conflict, post-conflict, violence and terrorism studies
54. Peace studies, conflict and peace keeping
55. Security and intelligence studies
56. War and military studies
57. Colonial, postcolonial and decolonial politics
58. Queer studies
59. Intersectional approaches
60. Religion and politics
61. Digital politics, political communication and political marketing
62. Visual and sensory politics

Boundaries

Institutions are encouraged to submit their strongest work, irrespective of the form of output. The sub-panel expects submissions in this UoA from all areas of politics and international studies, as defined above, and expects that most of the research activity submitted will have made a direct contribution to the UoA as characterised in the UoA descriptor. It recognises and welcomes, however, the increasingly interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of research in this area, and expects that submissions may contain outputs that not only make contributions to this UoA and other cognate disciplines but also to UoAs that extend beyond traditional cognate disciplines.

Descriptor

The UoA covers all forms of research in social work, social policy and administration, criminology, criminal justice policy, gerontology; and substantive issues, institutions, practices and outcomes in these fields. Research includes, but is not restricted to:

1. theory, concepts, methodology, empirical and/or applied research, and a wide range of methods including quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, participatory and co-produced research involving people with lived experience, linked administrative data, computational approaches, digital methods, reviews and syntheses, analyses of documents, records and statistics, ethics and values, pedagogy, and indigenous knowledges, where these are used to address substantive questions in these fields
2. research that defines, explains and seeks to understand social problems and their causes, distribution and consequences, including those relating to poverty and inequality, education, housing, health and care, work/labour markets, violence, exclusion, discrimination, migration, and related questions of welfare, justice and wellbeing
3. research on welfare politics, policy making, implementation, governance and management, service design, delivery and use, criminal justice systems and institutions, inter-professional relationships, and the organisation and reform of care, welfare and justice services, including research concerning children and families, adult services, disability, ageing, safeguarding, mental health, substance use, education, schooling and related welfare interfaces, and integrated care
4. comparative, international, transnational and global research in these fields, including work on international institutions, policy transfer, global inequalities, decolonial and transdisciplinary approaches
5. research that uses a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, including but not limited to business and management, demography, development studies, economics, education, geography, health studies, housing and urban studies, history, law, philosophy, politics, psychology, public policy, social anthropology, sociology, environmental studies and data science, where the primary substantive contribution falls within the remit of this UoA
6. research that includes collaboration, co-production or participatory inquiry with a range of stakeholders, including public and private bodies, professionals, practitioners, voluntary and community organisations, service users, participants, carers and communities
7. research that analyses, evaluates and provides critical insight into the intersection of the areas listed above with key dimensions of identity, representation, power and inequality, particularly in relation to marginalised or excluded groups and communities, for example social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, disability, age, religion, migration and citizenship status
8. research on climate, ecology and environmental justice where these bear on social work, social policy and administration, criminology, criminal justice policy and/or gerontology

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Criminology
2. Criminal justice policy
3. Education
4. Environment and climate change
5. Health
6. Housing
7. Identities and inequalities
8. International/comparative
9. Methodological approaches
10. Migration
11. Policy-making process, implementation, governance and evaluation
12. Poverty and economic inequality
13. Social care
14. Social security/welfare
15. Social work
16. Theoretical approaches
17. Work/labour markets
18. Other – please specify
19. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Policy-making process
2. Policy/service delivery/implementation
3. Policy/practice evaluation
4. Public policy
5. Social work with children and families
6. Social work with adults
7. Social work practice
8. Social work theories and methods
9. Criminology
10. Criminal justice policy
11. Criminal justice structures, processes and institutions (including policing, prisons, courts, sentencing)
12. Gender-based violence
13. Community justice
14. Rehabilitation/desistance
15. Life course criminology
16. Computational criminology
17. Cybercrime and digital criminology
18. Victimology
19. Violence, crime and social harm
20. Education
21. Environment and climate change/justice
22. Health (physical and mental) and wellbeing
23. Housing
24. Migration and/or citizenship
25. Mixed economy
26. Poverty, income and wealth inequality
27. Social security/welfare
28. Work/labour markets
29. Use of AI and digital methods in policy and practice
30. Intersectionality and inequalities
31. Children and young people
32. Disability
33. Families
34. Gender
35. Gerontology/ageing
36. ‘Race’, ethnicity
37. Religion
38. Sexuality
39. Social class
40. Devolution and spatial dimensions/place
41. International/comparative studies
42. Global South/de-colonial approaches including studies drawing on indigenous knowledges
43. Historical studies
44. Theoretical approaches and conceptual development
45. Methodological development
46. Specialist/advanced quantitative methods relating to AI, digital and other computational platforms/approaches
47. Other specialist/advanced quantitative methods including admin data linkage and RCT approaches
48. Specialist/advanced qualitative methods including those relating to co-production, participatory methods, community/lived experience
49. Specialist/advanced mixed methods approaches
50. Other – please specify

Boundaries

The UoA recognises and welcomes the increasingly interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of research in this area and expects that submissions may contain outputs that not only make contributions to this UoA and other cognate disciplines but also to UoAs that extend beyond traditional cognate disciplines.

Social work, social policy and administration, criminology, criminal justice policy and/or gerontology are closely related to a number of other disciplines within and beyond the social sciences. Political science, sociology, education, law, geography, social anthropology, psychology, history, public health, health studies, urban studies, economics, management, environmental studies and data science are all areas with significant overlap from which the sub-panel could expect to receive work.

Work from these areas falls within the remit of this UoA where its primary substantive contribution is to the understanding, evaluation, organisation or improvement of policy and/or practice within social work, social policy and administration, criminology, criminal justice policy and/or gerontology, underpinned by social science theory and method. 

For the avoidance of doubt, it is recognised that much criminological research may fall within the boundaries of Sub-panels 18 (Law), and/or 20 (Social Work and Social Policy) and/or 21 (Sociology). All three sub-panels welcome such work, which will be assessed in accordance with REF rules, making use of calibration, joint assessors and cross-referral as deemed appropriate by the sub-panels.

Descriptor

Sociology is a pluralistic discipline involving the study of society and the individual within society. It draws on an historical tradition that investigates all aspects of social action and interaction, and the diversity and inequality within societies. It encompasses the study of continuity and change in social structures, power, culture and everyday practices, institutions, and technologies. Sociological research employs a wide range of methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative and digital, and of diverse forms of data, with sociological analysis based in different epistemological traditions. It investigates social questions both theoretically and empirically at different scales and comparatively.

The sub-panel expects submissions in this UoA from all fields of sociological enquiry as indicated in the taxonomy which accompanies this descriptor.

Work submitted in this UoA may overlap significantly with work submitted to UoA 20 (Social Work and Social Policy) and UoA 23 (Education). There may also be overlap with other panels. It is anticipated that the use of calibration, joint assessors and cross-referral of parts of submissions may be required to ensure an appropriate assessment.

It is recognised that much criminological research may fall within the boundaries of Sub-panels 18 (Law), and/or 20 (Social Work and Social Policy) and/or 21 (Sociology). All three sub-panels welcome such work, which will be assessed in accordance with the arrangements noted in the Panel criteria, making use of calibration, joint assessors and cross-referral as deemed appropriate by the sub-panels.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions   

1. Identities, Inequalities and Social Divisions
2. Social research methods/methodology                     
3. Sociological theory                                                    
4. The life course                                                           
5. Political sociology                                          
6. Work and employment 
7. Sociology of education                                                
8. Sociology of culture                                                               
9. Global sociology                                            
10. Environment and climate change                  
11. Social structures and institutions                  
12. Science, technology and innovation                  
13. Criminology
14. Families and relationships                             
15. Sociology of medicine, health and illness
16. Sociology of place and space
17. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. AI and society
2. Archival research
3. Childhood
4. Class, inequality and social mobility
5. Classical social theory
6. Comparative sociology
7. Community
8. Consumption and taste
9. Contemporary social theory
10. Crime and justice
11. Cultural studies
12. Decoloniality/postcoloniality
13. Demography
14. Digital methods
15. Digital sociology, media and communication
16. Disability and neurodiversity
17. Economic sociology
18. Environment and sustainability
19. Ethnicity
20. Ethnography
21. Gender
22. Historical sociology
23. Human/non-human relations
24. Intersectionality
25. Intimate relationships, friendship and social ties
26. Migration, diaspora and transnationalism
27. Nationalism, nationality and citizenship
28. Personal life
29. Policing and punishment
30. The state, political institutions and processes
31. Qualitative methods
32. Quantitative methods
33. Race, racism and resistance
34. Religion, belief and ideology
35. Rural sociology
36. Science, technology and innovation studies
37. Security, securitisation and surveillance
38. Sexuality
39. Social movements
40. Social network analysis
41. Social statistics
42. Socio-legal studies    
43. Sociology of age and ageing
44. Sociology of death and dying
45. Sociology of disaster, crisis and pandemics
46. Sociology of education
47. Sociology of language and linguistics 
48. Sociology of materiality/objects
49. Sociology of medicine, health and illness
50. Sociology of sport and leisure
51. Sociology of the body
52. Sociology of the family
53. Subjectivities and the self
54. Urban sociology
55. Violence, conflict and war
56. Visual methods
57. Work and employment
58. Youth identities and subcultures

Boundaries

While sociological research may share many fields of interest with other social sciences, sociology is differentiated from them through its critical and analytical focus on the ways individuals and groups are socially embedded, and through its distinctive historical, methodological and theoretical traditions and their development. Work submitted to Sub-panel 21 (Sociology) is expected to reflect the fact that Sociology is a distinct, albeit plural, discipline, distinguished by its conceptually driven, theoretically informed study of social processes and social life.

Descriptor

The UoA covers all aspects of research within Anthropology and Development Studies, including research that is conceptual, theoretical, empirical, applied, strategic and practice-based, and that draws on a broad range of methodologies that includes the qualitative, quantitative, field-based, ethnographic, laboratory-based, experimental, participatory, evaluative, visual and comparative. The sub-panel welcome submissions in development studies or anthropology or combined units. Anthropology is understood to include the broad fields of biological and evolutionary anthropology, and social and cultural anthropology. Social and cultural anthropology includes, but is not limited to, economic and political anthropology; kinship, gender and relatedness; religion; cognition; medical anthropology; psychological anthropology; environment, conservation and biodiversity; the anthropology of development; visual anthropology; ethnomusicology and performance; museum anthropology, material culture; and digital anthropology. Biological and evolutionary anthropology include, but are not limited to, human and nonhuman primate evolution and adaptation; palaeoanthropology; behaviour, growth and development; cognition; health and disease; ecology; conservation; genetics; demography; and forensic applications. Development Studies involves the analysis of global, national and local processes of change, including social, economic, political, demographic, cultural, environmental and technological. These may be studied from micro- to macro-scale and from local to global levels, with particular attention to the relations between these. Attention is often paid to contexts characterised by poverty, inequalities, health or environmental vulnerability, and socio-political conflict and fragility. Research is often issue-driven and involves critical interrogation of development and humanitarian theories, structures, processes, policies and practices. Its focus can include, for example, poverty reduction, equalities, empowerment, peace and reduction of violence, and food security. It can be multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary and may combine social science with other disciplines.  

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Biological anthropology  
2. Conflict, security and humanitarianism  
3. Development economics 
4. Development studies 
5. Environment, climate and sustainability  
6. Evolutionary anthropology  
7. Global health and/or medical anthropology 
8. Museum anthropology, visual anthropology and material culture  
9. Political economy  
10. Social and cultural anthropology  
11. Social and public policy 
12. Social development  
13. Theory, methods and epistemology   
14. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Agricultural and rural development  
2. Art and material culture 
3. Anthropology of development  
4. Behaviour, growth and development  
5. Biological anthropology  
6. Cities and urban development 
7. Civil society and social movements  
8. Cognition  
9. Colonial, post-colonial and de-coloniality  
10. Demography  
11. Global development, cooperation, governance and finance  
12. Development management, practice and evaluation  
13. Disabilities  
14. Economic anthropology  
15. Economic development  
16. Energy and resource extraction 
17. Environment, conservation, biodiversity and environmental justice 
18. Equitable partnerships and coproduction of knowledge  
19. Ethics and morality  
20. Ethnomusicology and performance  
21. Evolutionary anthropology  
22. Food security  
23. Forensic anthropology  
24. Gender, sexualities and intersectionality 
25. Health systems and outcomes  
26. Heritage and museums 
27. Historical anthropology and/or development histories 
28. Human and political ecology  
29. Human and primate evolution, genetics and adaptation  
30. Humanitarianism 
31. Indigeneity, indigenous peoples, and minoritised groups 
32. Infrastructures  
33. Kinship and relatedness  
34. Labour, welfare and social policy 
35. Language 
36. Life-courses 
37. Medical anthropology  
38. Methodological developments 
39. Migration and displacement  
40. Multispecies and more than human anthropology  
41. Palaeoanthropology  
42. Peace, conflict and violence  
43. Political and legal anthropology  
44. Politics, governance and development  
45. Poverty, inequalities and wellbeing 
46. Primatology 
47. Psychological anthropology  
48. Race, racism and ethnicity 
49. Ritual and religion  
50. Risk and disaster management 
51. Rural and urban development  
52. Science, knowledge and technology  
53. Social development  
54. Visual anthropology  
55. Other 

Boundaries

Institutions are encouraged to submit their strongest work, irrespective of the form of output. The sub-panel welcomes a wide variety of methodologies and outputs reflecting the broad nature of anthropology and development as disciplines. The sub-panel recognises that there may be overlap with several sub-panels within Main Panel C, but also across the other main panels. 

Descriptor

Unit of Assessment 23 (Education) encompasses research concerned with education in its broadest sense, including teaching, learning, human development, personal and professional development, and systems, institutions and practices through which these are organised, experienced and transformed across the life course in all sectors, including higher education. The UoA recognises education as multi-dimensional including practice across disciplines and sectors where the primary focus is on the following indicative areas: learning; teaching; pedagogy; curriculum; assessment; educational processes and outcomes; education systems and policy; processes of learning; socialisation and development; and their social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

The nature of education requires flexible boundaries in determining relevance to the UoA. Research in education draws on and integrates perspectives and methodologies from across the social sciences, humanities and related fields, including established disciplinary traditions that often underpin education research. Submissions should be made to UoA 23, rather than to another disciplinary field, where the primary contribution of the research is to knowledge about the areas listed above. Education research includes work that advances research methodology, and often includes the generation of knowledge that informs policy, practice and public understanding.

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

1. Teaching
2. Learning
3. Socialisation
4. Human development
5. Personal and professional development
6. Pedagogy
7. Curriculum
8. Assessment
9. Evaluation
10. Systems
11. Institutions
12. Informal environments
13. Policy
14. Processes
15. Practices
16. Outcomes
17. Research methodology
18. Social contexts
19. Cultural contexts
20. Political contexts
21. Economic contexts
22. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

1. Adult and continuing education
2. Advanced statistics
3. Arts-based methods
4. Arts education
5. Assessment
6. Child and youth studies
7. Clinical education
8. Close-to-practice research
9. Coaching and mentoring
10. Computational research
11. Computer science and informatics education
12. Curriculum
13. Development and education
14. Digital learning and technologies
15. Documentary and discourse analysis
16. Early years education
17. Economics of education
18. Education politics and policy
19. Educational psychology
20. Environmental and sustainability education
21. Ethnography
22. Evidence synthesis
23. Experimental methods
24. Further education
25. Geography of education
26. Health professions education
27. Healthcare and professional education
28. Higher education
29. History of education
30. Humanities and social sciences education
31. Informal, community and lifelong learning
32. International and comparative education
33. Language education
34. Learning analytics
35. Learning support
36. Linguistics
37. Literacy education
38. Management and organisation of education institutions
39. Maths education
40. Medical education
41. Mixed methods
42. Parents and families
43. Participatory research
44. Pedagogy
45. Philosophy of education
46. Primary education
47. Psychology of education
48. Qualitative methods
49. Quantitative methods
50. Rights and equity issues in education
51. Science education
52. Secondary education
53. Sociology of education
54. Special and inclusive education
55. Survey methods
56. Teacher education
57. Visual methods
58. Vocational education and training
59. Workplace learning

Boundaries

The nature of education requires flexible boundaries in determining relevance to the UoA. Research in education draws on and integrates perspectives from across the social sciences, humanities and related fields, including established disciplinary traditions that often underpin education research.

UoA 23 expects submissions where the primary contribution of the research is to knowledge about education as defined in the descriptor, including research on pedagogy in higher education in any discipline. Education research often includes the generation of knowledge that informs policy, practice and public understanding.

Descriptor

Research in the UoA draws on the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. The sub-panel expects to receive submissions from a wide range of disciplines and subject areas that contribute to research in sport and exercise sciences, leisure and tourism.   

Broad research areas for determining representativeness of submissions

Research in the UoA should be rooted in the parent disciplines of sport and exercise sciences, leisure and tourism.  These include (in alphabetical order):

1. Anthropology
2. Biomechanics
3. Business and management
4. Coaching
5. Festivals and events
6. Geography
7. Health
8. Hospitality
9. Leisure
10. Medicine
11. Nutrition
12. Philosophy
13. Physical activity
14. Physical education
15. Physiology
16. Psychology
17. Sociology
18. Tourism and travel
19. Other for the purpose of aggregation

Research specialism to inform allocation of outputs to assessors

This could include, but is not limited to (in alphabetical order):

1. Adapted physical activity
2. Anthropology
3. Behavioural science
4. Biochemistry
5. Biomechanics
6. Business and management
7. Coaching
8. Complex systems
9. Culture and media studies
10. Development studies
11. Economics
12. Education and pedagogy
13. Engineering
14. Ethics
15. Festivals and events
16. Geography
17. Governance
18. Health
19. History
20. Hospitality
21. Human movement
22. Human performance
23. Implementation science
24. Innovation
25. Injury
26. Law
27. Leadership
28. Leisure
29. Marketing
30. Medicine
31. Metabolism
32. Mobility studies
33. Molecular biology
34. Motor control
35. Motor learning
36. Neuroscience
37. Nutrition
38. Outdoor and adventure studies
39. Performance analysis
40. Performing arts
41. Philosophy
42. Physical activity
43. Physical education
44. Physiology
45. Physiotherapy
46. Policy studies
47. Politics
48. Psychology
49. Public health
50. Recreation
51. Rehabilitation
52. Skill acquisition
53. Social justice
54. Sociology
55. Strength and conditioning
56. Sustainability
57. Technology
58. Tourism and travel

Research in sport and sciences, leisure and tourism are therefore derived from diverse disciplines and subject areas that could also be multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.

Boundaries

The sub-panel expects submissions in this UoA from all areas of sport and exercise sciences, leisure and tourism and expects research of all types, as defined by the Descriptor and Taxonomy. The UoA expects to consider research informed by a variety of research epistemologies, methodologies and approaches. The sub-panel will consider research defined as empirical, theoretical, strategic, applied, or policy-focused as having equal standing. This UoA can be a highly integrated field that recognises and welcomes interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. The UoA also recognises research might contain outputs that not only make contributions to this UoA, but also other cognate disciplines.