Referee

referee

A referee basically means someone to whom one can refer. In academic life, a referee is most commonly used in two senses.

The one that most undergraduate students are likely to use is a person whom one can ask to supply a personal reference. In effect, this is a person who says you are suitable for whatever post, paid or unpaid, you are applying for.

Post-graduate students are more likely than undergraduates to be concerned with academic referees in academic journals and suchlike. These are experts in a subject who are asked by the editor of the Journal to judge whether the paper being submitted is worth printing - that it is a good contribution; that it is academically respectable; and that it is original. In other words, the edotor may refer a paper to an expert to confirm its validity.

Outside academic life and the world of work, of course, a referee is most commonly a sports official to whom players refer questions about the legality of the play. In practice, they take charge: it is the whole conduct of the gamne that is referred to them.