A little showerthought.

In general I avoid and do not like 'in prep' sections on CVs. Published and in review, fine. But 'in prep' is a bit nebulous and says nothing of whether it's actually publishable.

However, we've entered an interesting point in the UK after the publication of the Stern Review (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-excellence-framework-review) which recommends that in the next REF assessment outputs will be attached to institutions, not authors. In other words, the practise of hiring people with papers already out to bolster research output ratings will not work, as the papers were not published at the new institution. Institutions will instead be looking to recruit people who can produce outputs between hiring and REF submission deadlines.

Does that mean that an 'in prep' section may become a valid marketing tool for yourself - essentially a "Hey, I have these papers in the pipeline that you could have".

Thoughts?