Changing research horizons

In this article I will argue that the UK Research Assessment Exercise, while useful in some respects, is in danger of limiting the wider dissemination and application of research findings. The British Psychological Society’s principal Charter object is to ‘promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied and especially to promote the efficiency and usefulness of Members of the Society by setting up a high standard of professional education and knowledge’. The Society is in a unique position to ensure that good psychological research reaches all potential users and beneficiaries, and in the breathing space we have between the last RAE and whatever shape the next such exercise takes, I would urge that the Society develops this role within British psychology.