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<TITLE>Re: [csaa-forum] removal of journal ranking system</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Colleagues,<BR>
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I’m still a little confused as to what a ‘unit of evaluation’ is. Is that a new term for ‘academic’? <BR>
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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.<BR>
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Best<BR>
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P<BR>
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Dr Paul Magee<BR>
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Associate Professor of Poetry<BR>
Faculty of Arts and Design<BR>
University of Canberra<BR>
ACT 2601<BR>
02 6201 2402<BR>
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Australian Government Higher Education (CRICOS)<BR>
Registered Provider number: #00212K<BR>
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On 1/06/11 11:11 AM, "James Arvanitakis" <<a href="J.Arvanitakis@uws.edu.au">J.Arvanitakis@uws.edu.au</a>> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.5pt'>Hey everyone<BR>
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I am also pleased with this – though always nervous about what is around the corner<BR>
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The journal ranking system has been devastating to emerging researchers. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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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?<BR>
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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.<BR>
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Thanks to those who put up a good fight on this<BR>
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<B><I>James Arvanitakis, PhD<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'>Senior Lecturer - School of Humanities and Languages<BR>
Head of Program - Dean Scholars<BR>
Research member - Centre for Cultural Research<BR>
Member of the Ally Program for GLBIT students<BR>
Fellow - Centre for Policy Development<BR>
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www.jamesarvanitakis.net</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:8pt'> <<a href="https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jamesarvanitakis.net">https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jamesarvanitakis.net</a>> <BR>
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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.<BR>
<BR>
University of Western Sydney<BR>
Rm UG05, Building U<BR>
Kingswood Campus<BR>
Ph: +61-47360391<BR>
Mob: +61-438-454-127<BR>
www.uws.edu.au</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:8pt'> <<a href="https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uws.edu.au">https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uws.edu.au</a>> <BR>
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