[csaa-forum] removal of journal ranking system

David Rowe D.Rowe at uws.edu.au
Wed Jun 1 18:12:58 CST 2011


Dear CSAA

ERA is not dead. The rigidly constructed journal ranking system has been discarded, but ERA 2012 will still happen and will affect us all, especially as it will have direct financial consequences. So there's still plenty more to be anxious about, sorry!

All Best

David

David Rowe
Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney


From: csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au [mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Mark Gibson (Arts)
Sent: Wednesday, 1 June 2011 4:00 PM
To: csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] removal of journal ranking system

ERA RIP.

Like others, though, I'm uneasy about what the alternative might be. There was always one thing to be said for ERA: it was an attempt to give recognition to publication outputs rather than give credit only (or mainly) according to funding inputs. The upside of that was obvious for a field like cultural studies, where some of the best work has been produced with very little funding support.

Graeme provides a useful insight into how some assessment of outputs might survive without journal rankings (via Jon Stratton's last email). If his description is right, then judgements will still be made about publication quality. It will just be 'in camera' (and hopefully more nuanced), avoiding the unintended consequences of public journal rankings.

Let's hope this system does work and that those making the judgements on quality do so wisely. My worry is that it might also prove too hard (or perhaps just too bloody time-consuming!) and they end up throwing up their hands and going back to taking grant income as a proxy for research quality. It would be so much easier.

Is it worse seeing the journal you publish in ranked B or C, or seeing publication in general rated at only 6% of research performance (as it was under HERDC)? It would be nice to think that we can do better than both, but I don't think there's any certainty.

Mark
On 1 June 2011 14:50, Jackie Cook <Jackie.Cook at unisa.edu.au<mailto:Jackie.Cook at unisa.edu.au>> wrote:
Love Paul's qualitative twist! Try this:

Q: "How many high-profile quantitative research exercises on academic evaluation  have the Unit Evaluators completed and published in peer-refereed journals?"
A: "They're  really extraordinarily flexible, a product of sector-leading evaluative experiences..."

Expect to hear something very like that, very soon...

Jackie Cook
UniSA

From: csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au<mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au> [mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au<mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au>] On Behalf Of Paul Magee
Sent: Wednesday, 1 June 2011 2:02 PM
To: csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au<mailto:csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au>

Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] removal of journal ranking system

Colleagues,


I'm still a little confused as to what a 'unit of evaluation' is. Is that a new term for 'academic'?

The way quality is so swiftly defined ('the introduction of a journal quality profile, showing the most frequently published journals') in terms of quantity also confuses me. Do you think we could do it the other way round, so that whenever people ask us to quantify a phenomenon we respond in terms of its qualities?  Q: How many plastic spacemen does it come with? A: They're really extraordinarily flexible, a product of sector-leading injection moulding.

Best

P


Dr Paul Magee

Associate Professor of Poetry
Faculty of Arts and Design
University of Canberra
ACT 2601
02 6201 2402

Australian Government Higher Education (CRICOS)
Registered Provider number: #00212K





On 1/06/11 11:11 AM, "James Arvanitakis" <J.Arvanitakis at uws.edu.au<http://J.Arvanitakis@uws.edu.au>> wrote:
Hey everyone

I am also pleased with this - though always nervous about what is around the corner

The journal ranking system has been devastating to emerging researchers.

Friends and colleagues have asked me 'how to publish in an A* journal' - and feel rejected if they fail. I have always responded that good quality research should be published in the appropriate journal and the rankings are arbitrary - and will change. This was confirmed to me by a publisher I met while in Europe who was literally laughing at the rankings system. He said some of his weakest and moribund journals had received A rating and had been revived from the decision - but could find no reason why this was the case. Meanwhile, excellent journals get a low ranking and people have chosen to ignore them.

We then compared an 'A Journal' that averages an average of 3.4 readers to a newspaper piece based on our research that has 10,000 reads: how should these compare?

While I have been lucky to be surrounded by excellent mentors and have supported my decision to ignore rankings, I have seen senior management at certain universities base their entire decision-making around the ranking system. Maybe if we are ever faced with such a system, we can agree to boycott it.

Thanks to those who put up a good fight on this


James Arvanitakis, PhD

Senior Lecturer - School of Humanities and Languages
Head of Program - Dean Scholars
Research member - Centre for Cultural Research
Member of the Ally Program for GLBIT students
Fellow - Centre for Policy Development

www.jamesarvanitakis.net<http://www.jamesarvanitakis.net> <https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jamesarvanitakis.net>

Harper Lee: Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

University of Western Sydney
Rm UG05, Building U
Kingswood Campus
Ph: +61-47360391
Mob: +61-438-454-127
www.uws.edu.au<http://www.uws.edu.au> <https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uws.edu.au>



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--
Dr Mark Gibson
Communications and Media Studies Program
National Centre for Australian Studies
School of Journalism, Australian and Indigenous Studies
Faculty of Arts, Monash University
Caulfield East, Victoria 3145
Australia

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