Excellence in Research for Australia
2010 Submission
Next year the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative will be conducted for all discipline clusters.
It is important that we all understand how this will be evaluated. The Australian Research Council (ARC) has released a consultation paper on the proposed indicator matrices and esteem indicators for the ERA.
The consultation paper can be accessed here.
This is the opportunity to provide input to the measures and indicators which will be applied.
Comments and suggestions to the issues raised in this Consultation Paper must be provided on a institution basis and received by the ARC by COB 25 September 2009.
To allow time for collation of your comments please have responses, using only the Issues for Response pro-forma, to Libby Magann by COB Wednesday 23rd September.
2009 Trial Submission
ERA Submission
Physical Chemical and Earth Sciences (PCE) and Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) Trial for 2009
A trial of ERA will occur this year. The trial will evaluate the Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences (PCE) and Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) clusters.
Submissions for the PCE cluster must be finalised by June 2009, and submissions for the HCA cluster will be August 2009. The outcomes of the trial will inform the full ERA process for ALL clusters in 2010.
The trial submission guidelines can be found here.
Review your publications and adding your FOR (Field of Research Codes)
To review your publications and to add your FOR codes please follow this link to https://staff.une.edu.au/public/warp/une_login_trans . Log in using your UNE username and password. If you see that publications are missing additional infomation on how to add publications can be found at the following library link http://www.une.edu.au/library/services/staff/era.php.
Previous Information
The ARC has released the draft ERA Submission Guidelines and draft ERA–SEER Technical Specifications for Cluster One (Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences) and Cluster Two (Humanities and Creative Arts)
The ARC has invited institutions to comment on the draft documents. If you would like to comment on these documents, please email your responses to era@une.edu.au or contact Grahame Pearson or Anne Roczniok who are coordinating input for UNE. Comments are due at the ARC by COB Friday 6 February 2009.
Comments will be considered by the ARC and incorporated into final ERA Submission Guidelines and ERA–SEER Technical Specifications, which will be used for the ERA Cluster One and Two evaluations in the first-half of this year.
On the 19th December 2008, Professor Margaret Sheil (CEO of the ARC) released two key documents for the assessment and evaluation of the ERA. The first is the ERA Indicator Principles providing an overall context and application of the indicator approach. The second is the ERA Indicator Descriptors providing the detail of each indicator type.
Both these documents can be found on the ARC website at http://www.arc.gov.au/era/indicators.htm
On 26 February 2008, the Minister for Innovation, IndustrIny, Science and Research, the Hon. Senator Kim Carr, announced his plans for a new research quality and evaluation system.
The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative will be developed by the ARC. It will assess research quality within Australia’s higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts.
Draft Pilot Submission Guidelines
The ERA draft pilot submission guidelines have been released (22nd August 2008).
Consultation Paper
The ERA Consultation Paper has now been released.
Consultation on Research Outlet Rankings
The ERA initiative will use a range of indicators and other proxies to support the evaluation of research excellence. One of these indicators is discipline-specific tiered outlet rankings.
The ARC is now seeking feedback from the sector to assist with the development of research journal rankings, a subset of tiered outlet rankings. This is the second phase of consultation and is to primarily canvass the views of higher education providers. Feedback from researchers is welcomed to the PVC Research or the Director, Research Services who will co-ordinate the UNE response.
Due to the large interest in and the importance of this exercise the ARC is extending the deadline for submissions by three weeks. Therefore, submissions as part of this consultation process will close internally by COB on 31 July 2008 to allow time for the compilation of your submissions into one submission from UNE to the ARC.
A excel template to provide feedback can be found here.
Deakin University has provided a tool to assist with the journal ranking process the link to their tool can be found here.
Consultation Files
Three files are provided to assist you to review journal rankings and make a submission:
- A 21,471 row excel workbook with macros and advanced filters to enable sorting either by discipline or journal name. The Workbook also contains a row editor that should be used to enter recommendations and supporting information. This Workbook includes short and detailed instructions for operation. NOTE: You need to ensure that macros are "enabled" on your computer settings before using the workbook (You may need to set your MS Excel security level to medium, on the Security Level tab in the Security dialog box [Tools menu, Macro submenu]). The Workbook is designed to operate on Excel 2003 or higher. The Workbook may not operate on pervious versions of Excel.
- A flat excel file (containing the same journal list as the workbook) and a template to enter recommendations and supporting information. Our preference is that you use the row editor in the Workbook as this will greatly assist with compiling institutions' submissions.
- A PDF of the (ANZSRC) FoR codes.
Relevant Weblink: ARC Research Excellence Indicators.
The ARC advises interested parties to ensure they read the details in each section at the links below.
- Background
- Consultation to develop outlet journal rankings
- Making submissions
(each institution should make only one submission. This is being co-ordinated through the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research. - Finalising the ranked journal list
How the Ranking List was Developed
The ARC did not develop the draft list. In late 2007 the four Learned Academies and a number of discipline peak bodies undertook a journal ranking exercise to develop draft journal rankings for their relevant disciplines. The lists have been reviewed by the ARC, in consultation with the Academies and the other list providers, to remove duplication and inconsistencies. The ARC has also updated RFCD codes to the new FoR codes to reflect the recently released ANZSRC. The ARC would like to thank everyone involved in developing the draft lists for Phase 1 of the Research Outlet Rankings. The Phase 1 journal ranking contributors are listed on our website. It is important that you read the Background information on the journal rankings process as well as download the Excel Workbook of the rankings.
UNE Contacts:
If you have a question or wish to provide feedback to UNE for submission to the ARC (where suitable) you can email era@une.edu.au or contact Anne Roczniok or Grahame Pearson.
Further Information:
Further information can be obtained by visiting the ARC's Research Excellence webpages.
RQF
Link to UNE RQF Pages