ERA distribution of information systems journals

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative being conducted by the Australian Research Council (ARC), mandates a single journal and conference ranking scheme over every academic discipline in Australia. A universal publication outlet ranking list mandated by a government agency is unique and has attracted interest and comment both within Australia and overseas. Equally, the interest shown has come from all sectors involved in academic publishing &ndash; authors, reviewers, publishers &ndash; and from commercial and open access publishers. This paper investigates the distribution of information systems journals over the various ERA parameters and comments on a claim of bias whereby the ranking of a journal is positively influenced by the number of years it has been in existence in the areas of information systems and business journals. Clear evidence of the diversity of the information systems discipline is observed. The benefits of a multidisciplinary foundation for information systems is also noted. Longer established journals are shown to attract higher rankings and possible reasons for and implications flowing from this are discussed.<br /

The dawn of a new ERA?: Australian Library & Information Studies (LIS) researchers further ranking of LIS journals

The Australian federal government’s Excellence in Research Australian (ERA) (Excellence in research (ERA), 2009) policy initiative has given Australian LIS researchers the opportunity to review their listings of preferred journal titles that will be a component of measured research activity in the new federal government funding regimes. The Australian research environment and university reliance on ranking meant that the importance of ranking journal titles could not be ignored. The ranking of journal titles as submitted to the Research Quality Framework (RQF) exercise in 2007-8, was reviewed in a tight timeframe with a collegial response to calls for feedback. The results are reported and the anomaly of the place of Australian LIS in the Field of Research (FoR) category as assigned by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is discussed, as is the potential relevance of this categorisation regarding the choice of journal titles by these members of the LIS discipline