ERA: adverse consequences

laudable aim of improving the quality of Australian research. Its approach is straightforward: measure the quality and quantity of research in different fields, with the prospect of funding attached to good outcomes, and this will stimulate better outcomes. However, this approach has many adverse consequences. Misleading journal rankings In the first ERA round, assessments of the quality of research teams were based, in part, on the quality of articles published in journals, assumed to correlate with the journal rankings of A*, A, B or C. On 30 May 2011, Senator Kim Carr announced that these rankings would be dropped and replaced by ‘journal quality profiles. ’ How ERA panels will use these profiles is not clear. In any case, it is worth reviewing shortcoming