Are Researcher Rankings Stable Across Alternative Output Measurement Schemes in the Context of a Time Limited Research Evaluation? The New Zealand Case

This paper focuses on the stability of rankings of academics by research productivity in the context of short-term decision making. In particular, the growing use of national research assessment exercises (NRAE) has increased interest in identifying the contributions of individual researchers to an assessment unit’s output and ranking. Our primary finding is that despite statistical evidence of a high degree of rank stability across a number of plausible journal weighting schemes, the journal selection process is of great importance to individual researchers. This applies with particular force to academics working within a NRAE environment based on individual assessment such as New Zealand’s PBRF.