On 30 May 2011, Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, announced improvements to the ERA methodology, based on feedback received and experience gained from the ERA 2010 evaluations. Among the improvements are:
- The withdrawal of the Ranked Outlets indicator and the introduction of a refined journal indicator that does not use prescriptive ranks.
- Improved capability to accommodate interdisciplinary research – in an extension of the arrangement successfully trialled in 2010 for the mathematical sciences, institutions will be permitted to code a journal article with significant content (66% or greater) not represented by the journal's FoR(s) to the FoR code that best describes the content.
- For peer review disciplines, an increase in the low volume threshold to 50 apportioned weighted outputs, bringing it in line with the threshold for citation disciplines (50 apportioned indexed articles).
In addition, the ARC is exploring ways to strengthen the peer review process.
For further details on the changes to the journal indicator rankings see the ERA frequently asked questions webpage.
A copy of the ERA 2012 Submission Guidelines are attached below.
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