Mike Croucher writes in the MATLAB community blog about the Hidden REF and the importance of software in research.
Anyone who has worked around academia for a long time will tell you that there are many roles in academic research that are vital-but-unrecognised. Software development used to be one of them! Back in 2012, a group of people decided to change this situation and created what has since become the Research Software Engineering (RSE) movement. As I can personally attest, this movement has been a game changer for those of us who contribute most through research software rather than journal writing. Our place in the academic world now has a name, a career structure, fellowship opportunities, an international association and more.
Read the article on the MATLAB community blog.