What is the Hidden REF?

The Hidden REF is a campaign and competition to recognise research outputs which fall outside of the usual journal article format. The campaign is particularly interested in highlighting work carried out by teams and individuals who support research in a way that is not usually recognised through authorship.

Patti Biggs from the Library and Information Services team is one such individual, and her project “3Rs search strategies for Pubmed” was celebrated by the Hidden REF with a Highly Commended Award.

Patti's project

The project was inspired by a request from the Biological Research Facility to help with their searching to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in biological research. Rather than creating one single search strategy, Patti came up with the idea of creating a modular strategy that could be tailored to create multiple different searches for different reasons.

I was extremely surprised to receive this award. Assisting scientists with searches is one of the most enjoyable and challenging parts of my job. By building these search modules I hope to save our scientists’ time and give them better results when they need to do 3RS searches for new projects.

Patti Biggs

The Head of Library and Information Services, Beth Montague-Hellen, submitted the project to the Hidden REF.

Operations and research support work can often fly under the radar, underpinning the excellent research that is carried out at the Crick, but rarely being formally celebrated. The Hidden REF allows us to celebrate this work, and Patti is an incredibly deserving recipient of it.

Beth Montague-Hellen

Please join us in sending our congratulations to Patti.