Signs of the Pernicious Effects of the ERA. (March 16, 2011)

With the ratings by Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) of university departmental research based principally on citation numbers and ARC journal rankings of peer reviewed papers published between 1 January 2003 - 31 December 2008 released at the end of January this year, Max King, Monash University's pro vice-chancellor (research and research training) told The Australian's Jill Rowbotham:

The one thing that's alarming some of us is that there is quite a bit of game-playing springing up because the next ERA is in two years' time and the citation date is at the end of this month. Some of our stars are telling us they are being wooed. What's happening is (there's) scheming to get people on their books by March 31. There are even cases where people are not expected to come and work on the university campus. So it's about getting really good people, with really good citations over the past six years.

Professor Douglas Kirsner at Deakin's  School of International and Political Studies views the ERA's ranking of the quality of journals per se, as having created an:

aura of false objectivity. The consequences of these auditing mechanisms have already invaded promotions and appointment committees in universities, where a ranking of journal articles with anything under 'A' is often dismissed by default. "This skews research to conformity with less risk-taking and unconventional thinking, where universities are second-guessing the government's next moves to fall into place with in advance.

And to illustrate the point Ms Rowbotham reports that Murdoch University acting vice-chancellor Gary Martin says among his strategic priorities for this year and "arguably the most important one of those" was positioning, re-positioning and consolidating research activities as a result of ERA. "With those areas of research which have not been rated as equal to international standard, we will be looking closely at what we need to do to raise the standard," Professor Martin said. "And in some instances we will look to disinvest in areas of research which have not met international standards."

Which brought forth the comment by Professor King that it was "a bit early" for universities to be reviewing areas and deciding to withdraw support from them.

One of the matters not mentioned is the possible, perhaps even probable, effects the ERA will have on the judgement of ARC and NHMRC reviewers of grant submissions in the future, i.e. skewing objective judgement of submissions because of an overall ranking of an applicant's department.

And playing musical chairs by university administrator's with principal investigators will spawn, as likely as not, a detrimental effect on Australia's overall research performance.