policy & reform
standard: physical chemistry, crop and pasture production, resource engineering and extractive metallurgy, agricultural biotechnology, clinical science, immunology, medical microbiology, zoology, animal production, genetics, veterinary science and environmental science.
Universities around Australia do not apply research quotas on their academics. They want staff to be free to discover what they can through disciplined methods.
“ We have no quota on how many research papers are to be submitted each year,” Shaw says.“ We encourage all of our academic staff to submit to the highest quality publications possible in their field, which are subject to a peerreview process.”
Professor Keith Nugent, deputy vice-chancellor research, La Trobe University, says,“ It is important to the university that its researchers test and share their findings by publishing in widely read journals, but a quota system is not in place.
“ In some areas, additional resources may be available to staff who have demonstrated they have an active research program that is esteemed by their peers through their publication history.”
The competitive nature of research is intensifying.“ More high quality research is being done around the globe than ever,” Nugent says.“ For researchers and their universities to stand out and develop, they need to be publishing research that others are reading and acting on.
“ They will need to do original research that contributes to knowledge that is of interest to others working in the field, and write up their findings according to the publications’ submission guidelines.”
La Trobe has established five research focus areas around its strengths: securing food, water and the environment; understanding disease; sport, exercise and rehabilitation; building healthy communities and transforming human societies.
“ In addition to these, the Australian Research Council’ s Excellence in Research for Australia( ERA) process ranked La Trobe as the top institution in the nation for research in microbiology and equal top with just one other university in biochemistry and cell biology, and veterinary sciences,” professor Nugent says.
“ Historical studies and archaeology were also assessed at the top ranking, highlighting the university’ s renowned strength in humanities. La Trobe ranked third in Victoria for the number of fields of research evaluated at world standard or above.”
Monash University is another big tertiary institution that prides itself on its research rankings. Monash has been assessed as well above world standard in all disciplines and it scored 5 in the 2012 ERA rankings. There were 22 disciplines to achieve that score but even they acknowledge times have changed.
“ Generally, there is more emphasis in the university sector on research performance than there was a decade ago,” professor Pauline Nestor, pro vice-chancellor research at Monash, says.“ Again, at Monash, academic staff are encouraged to publish research that is of high quality and that is likely to have impact, rather than simply focusing on the quantity of research published.
“ The university has targets – not quotas – for research performance. They are faculty and discipline specific.”
Professor John Ozolins is chair of the human research ethics committee and deputy chair of the academic board at Australian Catholic University.
“ Australian Catholic University follows very closely the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research in particular and other legislative requirements, as necessary,” Ozolins says. n
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16 | Issue 8 2013