Division of Library Services

ERA trial: Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) cluster  15/06/2009

The CRGT is currently collecting data for the 2009 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) trail for the Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) cluster.

The creative works part of ERA is a recognition that research outputs don’t always fit into publications such as journal articles etc. It is an area that is not straightforward and will evolve as the ARC work out how and what to measure and academics work out how their work fits into the criteria. It is important to capture as many creative works of CSU staff as possible. You are required fill in the relevant CSU Research Output (CRO) submission form and attach a 250 word research statement and a digital version of the work that can be displayed on CRO if copyright allows. Regardless of copyright the digital versions are required for the ERA peer review process.

If you think that your research should be included in the HCA trial, see the CRO web site.

ERA timeframe  23/02/2009

Senator the Hon Kim Carr's [Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research] announced the timeframe for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) trial, which will evaluate the Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences (PCE) and Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) clusters.

“The Australian Government is committed to the development of a world-class research quality and evaluation system that has the confidence of the sector,” Senator Carr said. Recent feedback on the ERA Submission Guidelines and ERA–SEER Technical Specifications raised concerns about the proposed timing of the ERA trial.

To ensure universities are adequately prepared for the trial, submissions for the PCE cluster will now commence in June 2009, and submissions for the HCA cluster will commence in August 2009. The outcomes of these trials will inform the full ERA process in 2010. This timeframe will ensure that universities are able to collect and submit quality and accurate data for ERA. Recent feedback also raised concerns about the scope of some of the data to be collected. Following this feedback, esteem indicators will not be included in the ERA trial. I have asked the ARC to further investigate the collection of esteem indicators, which will be included in future evaluations.

The expert review and feedback that the ARC has received so far has been crucial in shaping ERA. I trust universities will be pleased with the timeframe I have announced today and I ask that they continue to provide constructive feedback on ERA to the ARC. The ARC will release the final ERA Submission Guidelines and ERA–SEER Technical Specifications for the trial, in early March. You can find out more about ERA at http://www.arc.gov.au/"

Your (real) Impact Factor 12/12/2008

from PHD Comics: Piled higher & deeper: A grad student comic strip http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

Open access publishing may reach more readers than subscription access publishing 17/10/2008

A recent article in the BMJ reports that ‘open access publishing may reach more readers than subscription access publishing. No evidence was found of a citation advantage for open access articles in the first year after publication. The citation advantage from open access reported widely in the literature may be an artefact of other causes’.

Davis, P. M., Lewenstein, B. V., Simon, D. H., Booth, J. G., Connolly, M. J., Davis, P. M., et al. (2008). Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 337, a568. doi:10.1136/bmj.a568

Government releases innovation review paper 12/09/2008

Senator the Hon Kim Carr's [Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research] announced the release of the report of the review of Australia's national innovation system, calling it a turning point for the future of innovation in Australia.

The Review was conducted by an expert panel chaired by Dr Terry Cutler. The panel analysed Australia's innovation system and made a series of recommendations to revitalise it.

The report 'Venturousaustralia: Building strength in innovation', together with a summary of the 'overview & recommendations', supporting annexes and the associated review of the Cooperative Research Centres Program 'Collaborating to a purpose', is available from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research web site.

Australian Research Council (ARC) asks for researchers’ publication records 03/09/2008

Slattery, L. (2008, September 03). Australian Research Council calls for records. The Australian. Retrieved September 03, 2008, from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24283660-12332,00.html

'AUSTRALIAN higher education's first comprehensive gauge of research excellence moved a step closer to reality this week with a call to universities for voluntary information on their researchers' publication records.

On Monday the Australian Research Council wrote to all universities seeking information to assist with the "testing and development of possible indicators" for the new Excellence for Research in Australia initiative, successor to the Howard government's ill-fated research quality framework.'

Support for Indigenous Researchers 18/08/2008

Senator the Hon Kim Carr's [Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research] announced his intention to introduce new public funding arrangements that will create additional opportunities for Indigenous Australians pursuing academic research careers.

Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship  22/07/2008

Evans, J. A. (2008). Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship. Science, 321(5887), 395-399. doi:10.1126/science.1150473

‘Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. … Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.’

Access to this article in the journal Science is via an ongoing CSU Library electronic journal trial.