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ERA Submission Data

Information is required to be submitted to the ARC regarding a number of indicators. The data required varies between clusters, between 2-digit FoR groups, and even between 4-digit FoR codes, since a given indicator is not always useful for all research disciplines. In general, the following information needs to be submitted for all clusters.

Eligible Researcher Data

All research-active staff, including permanent academic staff, research-only staff, post-doctoral staff, as well as technical, general or casual staff, employed by the University are eligible for inclusion in ERA. Research-active in this context means having produced a research item of interest. For all submitted staff we need to provide:

  • FTE if applicable
  • FoR up to a maximum of three four-digit codes - with the researcher to select their own
  • Level A-E or other for non-academic staff
  • Status Employed or Other
  • Function Teaching and Research, Research Only, or Other

Eligibility and necessary information will be drawn from University records, and we will not be asking staff to fill in this data.

Research Outputs

The eligibility requirements for research outputs are similar to HERDC and are listed below. The research output must:

  • Must meet the definition of research;
  • Have been published or brought into the public domain within the relevant period;
  • Have one or more eligible researchers listed as an author of the research output; and
  • Be an eligible research output type. Eligible research output types are books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, as well as non-traditional output types for several research disciplines.

Citation Analysis

Citation analysis will be used as an indicator in FoR codes where at least half of the total output of the discipline (including research outputs other than journal articles) is indexed by the citation information provider. The citation information provider for the 2010 ERA exercise is Scopus.

Peer Review

Peer review will be used for ERA disciplines where citation analysis is not considered to be a robust indicator. Universities will tag 20 % of research outputs for peer review (and will use Research Directors from each Faculty to choose these), the ARC will then ask RECs and separate peer reviewers, where necessary, to assess a selection of these tagged outputs. Any creative work tagged for peer review must be accompanied by a research statement.

Research Income

Research income data will be collected in alignment with the following categories collected as part of HERDC:

  • Australian Competitive Grants (Category 1);
  • Other Public Sector Research Income (Category 2);
  • Industry and Other Research Income (Category 3);
  • Cooperative Research Centre Research Income (Category 4).

For ERA, institutions must submit information on research income using these three sub-categories for the applicable period. Since all eligible grants are processed through the research office, we do not need researchers to submit information on grants. All research income must be reported at the four-digit FoR level.

Applied Measures

Institutions must submit information against a range of applied measures. These measures vary according to the research discipline, but include information on:

  • Patents
  • Registered designs;
  • Plant breeders' rights;
  • NH&MRC-endorsed guidelines;
  • Research commercialisation income.

Esteem

Esteem indicators constitute recognition of the research quality of eligible researchers and indicate that a researcher is held in particularly high regard by peers in their discipline or by other well-qualified parties. They must embody a measure of prestige and be recognised by experts within the discipline as a highly-desired, highly-regarded form of accolade or acknowledgement.

Esteem indicators vary according to the research discipline, but include information on:

  • editor of a prestigious work of reference;
  • membership of a learned academy or AIATSIS;
  • recipient of a nationally competitive research fellowship;
  • membership of a statutory committee;
  • recipient of and Australia Council Grant or Fellowship.

Updated: 14 December 2011