Code of Conduct To ensure the integrity, fairness, and international credibility of the REF Pakistan assessment, all reviewers must adhere to a strict Code of Conduct. The framework is built on the principle that judgements must be impartial, evidence-based, and free from personal or institutional bias. 1. Reviewer Code of Conduct All appointed reviewers (Academic, Impact, and Methodology experts) are bound by the following ethical obligations: Confidentiality: Maintain...

Reviewer Process Map Each submission is allocated to two independent expert reviewers who work privately to carry out a detailed evaluation. The 5-Stage Assessment Window Reviewer Time Commitment On average, an individual assessment takes 2–4 hours per submission, depending on the completeness of the evidence and the methodological complexity of the research.

The Star-Rating Rubric This consolidated rubric provides a high-level summary of the standards used to judge research quality across all three pillars. Reviewers use these descriptors to ensure that every institutional score is benchmarked against national and international excellence. Overview of the 1–4* Scale The final score for any submission is a weighted average of the ratings assigned to each pillar based on the following quality levels: Rating...