[csaa-forum] ERA rankings

Tue Jul 8 13:47:15 CST 2008

I guess I also wonder if those who agree with the direction of this
discussion might not spread it to other humanities groups and fora. These
are, after all, serious matters when it comes to the direction of the
humanities as a whole.

I should add here that when I previously wrote of hierarchical organization
versus prolliferation, this is not just an issue for "new media" or
"cultural theory". As we all know, there is a general fascinating cultural
flowering of intellectual life across the board, including the "traditional"
humanities (to the point that such partitioning no longer make sense). Some
of the most interesting work - in my view - at the moment is coming out of
historian's use of digital media or from geographers. And of course
librarians are leading the way, which should surprise no one.

all the best, Andrew

2008/7/8 Tony Mitchell <tony.mitchell at uts.edu.au>:

> I meant to send this to the list, but ended up just sending it to Andrew -
> I agree entirely with the protest action. T.M.
>
> he word 'Sisyphean' springs to mind. If you ask me, the whole thing is a
> pointless time-wasting exercise that simply reflects the fact that the ARC
> can't get its act together. T.M.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 07/07/2008, at 2:19 PM, Andrew Murphie wrote:
>
> just to reiterate Greg's point, however ... people can try to "save" as
> many journals they like, but the more that are pushed up, the more that will
> be pushed down again. There can only be %5 A* and 15% A, including overseas
> journals ... there is an effort to give journals appropriate recognition,
> which is of course necessary but itself subject to a haphazard and
> unpredictable process. But the question of the percentages doesn't really
> seem to be addressed as yet, and in many ways that is the main game.
>
> best, Andrew
>
> 2008/7/7 Jon Stratton <J.Stratton at curtin.edu.au>:
>
>>
>>   Hi Everybody,
>>     While on the matter of which journals are ranked high and which low,
>> those people who write about film need to know that (I think I am right in
>> saying) no film journal get higher than a B ranking and most, including
>> Screen, get a C.  Also, for those who write about popular music--and I have
>> already posted this information to the local popular music studies email
>> List--Perfect Beat: The Pacific Journal for Research into Contemporary Music
>> and Popular Culture, running since 1992 and the only Australian-based
>> journal specialising in popular music studies, gets a C and the other
>> relevant journals, such as Popular Music and Society, get a B.
>> Again, I emphasise, please organise submissions.
>> cheers,
>> Jon
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au on behalf of Jon Stratton
>> *Sent:* Sun 6/07/2008 6:24 PM
>> *To:* Lelia GREEN; csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
>>
>> *Subject:* RE: [csaa-forum] ERA rankings
>>
>>
>>   Hi Everybody,
>>     Thanks for expanding and reinforcing my email, Leilia.  In the last
>> few days, the dealine has been extended.  I was sent this email:
>>
>> 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 COB on
>> Thursday 14 August, 2008, but researchers will be asked (via the "Making
>> Submissions" link on our website
>> http://www.arc.gov.au/era/submissions_ranking.htm<https://email.curtin.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.arc.gov.au/era/submissions_ranking.htm>)
>> to have their submission material to their institution's ERA Liaison Officer
>> by *COB 31 July 2008* to allow time for compilation of your institution's
>> submission.
>>  cheers,
>> Jon
>>  ------------------------------
>>  *From:* Lelia GREEN [mailto:l.green at ecu.edu.au]
>> *Sent:* Sun 6/07/2008 3:45 PM
>> *To:* Jon Stratton; csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
>> *Subject:* RE: [csaa-forum] ERA rankings
>>
>> Dear Jon and all
>>
>> Thanks for raising this, Jon.
>>
>> In fact, the ARC press release of 12 June indicates that institutions have
>> until 24 July to respond to the draft list. (See below). Institutions will
>> probably have closing dates for internal submissions that are a week or two
>> before this date -- so this is a job for the coming week!
>>
>> Sadly, both Cultural Studies journals and Communications journals appear
>> to have suffered as a result of not being clearly aligned with either a
>> Humanities or a Social Sciences focus. In addition to the list of B graded
>> journals in your post can be added the internationally-recognised Australian
>> Journal of Communication (which the Australian Business Deans' Council
>> graded as A), and M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture. The only Australian
>> journal in our field to be recognised as higher than B appears to be Media
>> International Australia (A*).
>>
>> I agree with Jon that this is a matter that should be raised urgently with
>> our University research co-ordinators since it would be inappropriate to
>> categorise all Australian journals in Media, Communications and Cultural
>> Studies (apart from MIA) as publishing "only a few papers of very high
>> quality".
>>
>> Further, this discussion and the fact that we had little notice of the
>> outcomes prior to the 12 June indicates that we should work towards a
>> national forum of Humanities and Arts Deans so that we could have had input
>> into the national discussions equivalent to that enjoyed by the Business
>> Deans. (They have a national meeting twice a year to impact upon policy
>> affecting their discipline areas.)
>>
>> Thanks again
>>
>> Lelia
>>
>>
>> Thursday, 12 June 2008
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ARC seeks sector's views on journal rankings for ERA initiative
>>
>>
>>
>> The Australian Research Council (ARC) has today launched a consultation
>> period on a draft journal rankings list, one of the indicators that will be
>> used on a discipline-specific basis to evaluate research as part of the
>> Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative.
>>
>>
>>
>> Research outlets are ranked into four tiers (A*, A, B and C) on the basis
>> of the overall quality that each has for a particular discipline.
>>
>>
>>
>> ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Margaret Sheil said that this is
>> the second phase on the journal rankings.  In late 2007, the four Learned
>> Academies and a number of peak bodies, undertook the initial journal ranking
>> exercise to develop this draft for their relevant disciplines.
>>
>>
>>
>> "More than 19,000 unique peer reviewed journals have been identified to
>> form the draft list of ranked journals.
>>
>>
>>
>> "It is worth noting that journals of Australian origin are well
>> represented in the top tiers of the draft rankings.
>>
>>
>>
>> "This is an important process to ensure that the higher education and
>> research sectors will have confidence in the rankings that will be used as
>> part of the ERA initiative," Professor Sheil said.
>>
>>
>>
>> Submissions will close on Thursday 24 July, 2008.  More information is
>> available from the ARC website: http://www.arc.gov.au/era/indicators.htm<
>> https://staffmail.ecu.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.arc.gov.au/era/indicators.htm
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> The ARC will release the final journal ranking list once all submissions
>> have been considered.
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au on behalf of Jon Stratton
>> Sent: Sun 06/07/2008 10:30
>> To: csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
>> Subject: [csaa-forum] ERA rankings
>>
>>
>>
>>   Hi Everybody,
>>       If you haven't already, may I please suggest that you look at the
>> journal rankings that are planned to be used for the federal government's
>> Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise.  The list of journals
>> and the rankings can be found at:
>> http://www.arc.gov.au/xls/ERA_Journal_Ranking_Flatfile.xls <
>> https://email.curtin.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.arc.gov.au/xls/ERA_Journal_Ranking_Flatfile.xls>
>> .  There are four categories, A*, A, B. C.  C is therefore the lowest
>> ranking.  You might particularly want to note that Continuum, which is the
>> only international cultural studies journal based in Australia, and is the
>> CSAA-linked journal, has a B ranking.  This places it well down in
>> importance and means that articles published in it will not be regarded by
>> the ERA exercise as being of as much worth as compared to if the journal are
>> ranked at A* or A.
>>        Journal of Intercultural Studies is also ranked as a B, as are
>> Social Identities, and Borderlands.  Third Text is a C as is New
>> Formations.  As a generalisation, it seems to me that journals based in the
>> US or Britain, and journals which tend towards publishing less innovative
>> and less controversial (and this includes political) articles, tend to be
>> given the higher rankings.
>>      At present submissions are being taken for additions to the journal
>> list and for changes in ranking.  All submissions have to be sent through
>> universities.  If you have not been contacted by the R&D area of your
>> university may I suggest that you contact them, find out how to register a
>> submission in your university and do so.  The closing date for submissions
>> is towards the end of July.
>> thanks for your time,
>> Jon
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> "Take me to the operator, I want to ask some questions" - Barbara
> Morgenstern
>
> "A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, Where am I? What he
> really wants to know is, Where are the other places" - Alfred North
> Whitehead
>
> "I thought I had reached port; but I seemed to be cast back again into the
> open sea" (Deleuze and Guattari, after Leibniz)
>
> Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor
> School of English, Media and Performing Arts, University of New South
> Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2052
> Editor - The Fibreculture Journal http://journal.fibreculture.org/>
> web:
> http://www.andrewmurphie.org/
> http://www.andrewmurphie.org/blog/
> http://www.last.fm/user/andersand/
> http://researchhub.cofa.unsw.edu.au/ccap/
>
> fax:612 93856812 tlf:612 93855548 email: a.murphie at unsw.edu.au
> room 311H, Webster Building _______________________________________
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-- 
"Take me to the operator, I want to ask some questions" - Barbara
Morgenstern

"A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, Where am I? What he
really wants to know is, Where are the other places" - Alfred North
Whitehead

"I thought I had reached port; but I seemed to be cast back again into the
open sea" (Deleuze and Guattari, after Leibniz)

Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor
School of English, Media and Performing Arts, University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia, 2052
Editor - The Fibreculture Journal http://journal.fibreculture.org/>
web:
http://www.andrewmurphie.org/
http://www.andrewmurphie.org/blog/
http://www.last.fm/user/andersand/
http://researchhub.cofa.unsw.edu.au/ccap/

fax:612 93856812 tlf:612 93855548 email: a.murphie at unsw.edu.au
room 311H, Webster Building
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