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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-AU link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Love Paul&#8217;s qualitative twist! Try this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Q: &#8220;How many high-profile quantitative research exercises on academic evaluation &nbsp;have the Unit Evaluators completed and published in peer-refereed journals?&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>A: &#8220;They&#8217;re &nbsp;really extraordinarily flexible, a product of sector-leading evaluative experiences&#8230;&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Expect to hear something very like that, very soon&#8230;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Jackie Cook<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>UniSA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> csaa-forum-bounces@lists.cdu.edu.au [mailto:csaa-forum-bounces@lists.cdu.edu.au] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Paul Magee<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, 1 June 2011 2:02 PM<br><b>To:</b> csaa-forum@lists.cdu.edu.au<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [csaa-forum] removal of journal ranking system<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Colleagues,<br><br>I&#8217;m still a little confused as to what a &#8216;unit of evaluation&#8217; is. Is that a new term for &#8216;academic&#8217;? <br><br>The way quality is so swiftly defined (&#8216;the introduction of a journal quality profile, showing the most frequently published journals&#8217;) 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? &nbsp;Q: How many plastic spacemen does it come with? A: They&#8217;re really extraordinarily flexible, a product of sector-leading injection moulding.<br><br>Best<br><br>P<br><br><br>Dr Paul Magee<br><br>Associate Professor of Poetry<br>Faculty of Arts and Design<br>University of Canberra<br>ACT 2601<br>02 6201 2402<br></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br>Australian Government Higher Education (CRICOS)<br>Registered Provider number: #00212K<br></span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br><br><br><br><br>On 1/06/11 11:11 AM, &quot;James Arvanitakis&quot; &lt;<a href="J.Arvanitakis@uws.edu.au">J.Arvanitakis@uws.edu.au</a>&gt; wrote:</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Hey everyone<br>&nbsp;<br>I am also pleased with this &#8211; though always nervous about what is around the corner<br>&nbsp;<br>The journal ranking system has been devastating to emerging researchers. <br>&nbsp;<br>Friends and colleagues have asked me &#8216;how to publish in an A* journal&#8217; &#8211; 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 &#8211; 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 &#8211; 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>&nbsp;<br>We then compared an &#8216;A Journal&#8217; 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>&nbsp;<br>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>&nbsp;<br>Thanks to those who put up a good fight on this<br>&nbsp;<br><br><b><i>James Arvanitakis, PhD<br></i></b><br></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>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><br><a href="http://www.jamesarvanitakis.net">www.jamesarvanitakis.net</a></span><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> &lt;<a href="https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jamesarvanitakis.net">https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jamesarvanitakis.net</a>&gt; <br></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br>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><a href="http://www.uws.edu.au">www.uws.edu.au</a></span><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> &lt;<a href="https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uws.edu.au">https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=b8a0230cbcb44c06b284e6f5777c2892&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uws.edu.au</a>&gt; <br></span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br><br></span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><hr size=3 width="95%" align=center></span></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Consolas'>_______________________________________<br><br>csaa-forum<br>discussion list of the cultural studies association of australasia<br><br><a href="http://www.csaa.asn.au">www.csaa.asn.au</a><br><br>change your subscription details at <a href="http://lists.cdu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/csaa-forum">http://lists.cdu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/csaa-forum</a></span><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>