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An evaluation of the Australian Research Council's journal ranking

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  • Vanclay, Jerome K.

Abstract

As part of its program of ‘Excellence in Research for Australia’ (ERA), the Australian Research Council ranked journals into four categories (A*, A, B, and C) in preparation for their performance evaluation of Australian universities. The ranking is important because it likely to have a major impact on publication choices and research dissemination in Australia. The ranking is problematic because it is evident that some disciplines have been treated very differently than others. This paper reveals weaknesses in the ERA journal ranking and highlights the poor correlation between ERA rankings and other acknowledged metrics of journal standing. It highlights the need for a reasonable representation of journals ranked as A* in each scientific discipline.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanclay, Jerome K., 2011. "An evaluation of the Australian Research Council's journal ranking," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 265-274.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:2:p:265-274
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2010.12.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Kulczycki, Emanuel & Korzeń, Marcin & Korytkowski, Przemysław, 2017. "Toward an excellence-based research funding system: Evidence from Poland," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 282-298.
    4. Peep Küngas & Siim Karus & Svitlana Vakulenko & Marlon Dumas & Cristhian Parra & Fabio Casati, 2013. "Reverse-engineering conference rankings: what does it take to make a reputable conference?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(2), pages 651-665, August.
    5. Jerome K. Vanclay & Lutz Bornmann, 2012. "Metrics to evaluate research performance in academic institutions: a critique of ERA 2010 as applied in forestry and the indirect H2 index as a possible alternative," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 751-771, June.
    6. Yuret, Tolga, 2016. "Interfield equality: Journals versus researchers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 1196-1206.
    7. Ahlgren, Per & Waltman, Ludo, 2014. "The correlation between citation-based and expert-based assessments of publication channels: SNIP and SJR vs. Norwegian quality assessments," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 985-996.
    8. Daniela Godoy & Alejandro Zunino & Cristian Mateos, 2015. "Publication practices in the Argentinian Computer Science community: a bibliometric perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1795-1814, February.
    9. Marzolla, Moreno, 2016. "Assessing evaluation procedures for individual researchers: The case of the Italian National Scientific Qualification," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 408-438.
    10. Saarela, Mirka & Kärkkäinen, Tommi & Lahtonen, Tommi & Rossi, Tuomo, 2016. "Expert-based versus citation-based ranking of scholarly and scientific publication channels," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 693-718.
    11. Haddawy, Peter & Hassan, Saeed-Ul & Asghar, Awais & Amin, Sarah, 2016. "A comprehensive examination of the relation of three citation-based journal metrics to expert judgment of journal quality," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 162-173.
    12. Maureen McKelvey & Bastian Rake, 2020. "Exploring scientific publications by firms: what are the roles of academic and corporate partners for publications in high reputation or high impact journals?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1323-1360, March.
    13. Lina Xu & Steven Dellaportas & Jin Wang, 2022. "A study of interdisciplinary accounting research: analysing the diversity of cited references," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2131-2162, June.
    14. Pajić, Dejan, 2015. "On the stability of citation-based journal rankings," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 990-1006.
    15. Vanclay, Jerome K., 2012. "Publication patterns of award-winning forest scientists and implications for the Australian ERA journal ranking," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 19-26.
    16. Vanclay, Jerome K., 2013. "Factors affecting citation rates in environmental science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 265-271.

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