Queen Mary, University of London has warned one of its academics that he faces an investigation that potentially could lead to dismissal, after he wrote a letter criticising its metrics-based redundancy programme and two senior managers.

Fanis Missirlis, a lecturer in cell biology, and a colleague put their names to a letter to The Lancet that was published online on 4 May.

On 14 May, Dr Missirlis received a letter from a human resources officer at Queen Mary telling him that the college had ¡°decided to commence a fact-finding investigation¡± into an allegation that in publishing the letter he ¡°sought to bring the Head of School of Biological and Chemical Sciences (Matthew Evans) and the Dean for Research in the School of Medicine and Dentistry (Thomas MacDonald) into disrepute¡±.

If the allegations proceed to a full disciplinary hearing and are substantiated, they may constitute misconduct, the letter says, or even gross misconduct, ¡°which could lead to dismissal¡±.

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Queen Mary¡¯s disciplinary code says managers will ¡°investigate thoroughly any allegations of misconduct that come to their attention and decide if formal action is needed¡±.

The restructuring programmes in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and the School of Medicine and Dentistry - which are using metrics intended to measure research performance to select candidates for redundancy - have provoked concern among academics at Queen Mary.

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In the letter to The Lancet, Dr Missirlis - who has also written a letter to Times Higher Education on the subject - says the ¡°retrospective crimes¡± of those selected for redundancy, ¡°committed between 2008 and 2011, include too few publications as a ¡®significant¡¯ author in high-impact journals, below-average external funding, and failure to meet metrics for allocation of PhD studentships¡±.

He refers to the dean of research in the School of Medicine and Dentistry as the ¡°grand inquisitor¡± in that school and says the dean¡¯s own research credentials ¡°are, naturally, unavailable for scrutiny¡±.

In the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Dr Missirlis says, ¡°one of the ¡®metrics¡¯ for research output at professorial level is to have published at least two papers in journals with impact factors of 7 or more¡±. He asks how the head of the school would fare on that basis.

Chris Pearson, director of human resources at Queen Mary, said: ¡°Colleagues are free to publicly discuss their concerns over restructuring, and we have encouraged discussion and feedback ¡­ We never discuss or comment on individual cases of staff who may or may not be involved in disciplinary matters.¡±

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john.morgan@tsleducation.com