How Much Influence Do Economics Professors Have on Rankings? The Case of Australia and New Zealand

This study ranks Australian and New Zealand economics teaching departments on the basis of the research productivity of its economics professors in economics teaching departments using quality adjusted journal articles listed on the ECONLIT database for the periods 1988-2002 and for 1996-2002. The per capita research productivity of professors is highest for University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia and University of Canterbury. For a number of economics departments, the per capita research productivity is lower than the research productivity of all faculty members, using a number of criteria for 1988-2002 and 1996-2002. These universities are University of Auckland, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Griffith University and Macquarie University.research productivity; economics professors; rankings of economics departments

"On the Robustness of Alternative Rankings Methodologies For Australian and New Zealand Economics Departments"

Just as friendly arguments based on an ignorance of facts eventually led to the creation of the definitive Guinness Book of World Records, any argument about university rankings has seemingly been a problem without a solution. To state the obvious, alternative rankings methodologies can and do lead to different rankings. This paper evaluates the robustness of rankings of Australian and New Zealand economics teaching departments for 1988-2002 and 1996-2002 using alternative rankings methodologies, and compares the results with the rankings obtained by Macri and Sinha (2006). In the overall mean rankings for both 1988- 2006 and 1996-2002, the University of Melbourne is ranked first, followed by UWA and ANU.

Rankings of Economists in Teaching Economics Departments in Australia, 1988-2000

This paper provides rankings of individual Australian economists in teaching economics departments on the basis of ECONLIT journal articles for the periods 1988-2000 and 1995-2000. In ranking the economists, two types of rankings of journals are employed and approximately 400 journals are taken into account. These are the citation-based rankings and the perception-based rankings.Two different citation-based journal rankings, those by Laband and Piette (1994) and Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas and Stengos (2001) are used. Perception-based journal rankings from Mason, Steagall and Fabritius are used. The rankings are provided for both 1988-2000 and for 1995-2000.

Modelling the Research Output of Australian Universities by Discipline

This paper develops and estimates a cross-sectional model for forecasting research output across the Australian university system. It builds upon an existing literature that focuses either on institutional comparisons or studies of specific subjects, by providing discipline-specific results across all of the ten major disciplinary areas as defined by Australia’s Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). The model draws upon four discipline-specific explanatory variables; staff size, research expenditure, PhD completions, and student-staff ratios to predict output of refereed articles. When compared with actual averaged output for 2000-2004, the results are highly statistically significant.

Identifying the Most Research Intensive Faculties of Business in Australia: A Multidimensional Approach

There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities, and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. Using averaged and all available data for 2000-2004, cluster analysis is used to classify Australian Commerce Faculties into groups that exhibit similar research performance, measured by publication, PhD completion and secured competitive research grant funding. We also use factor analysis to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting two or three clusters. It is found that in terms of total research output, with the exception of Adelaide all the Go8 members plus UTS and Griffith always belong to “Clusters A”. However, when research performance is expressed in per academic staff terms, an additional eleven universities join this same cluster. Our results additionally show that eight Australian faculties of Commerce not only possess low total research output but their per capita performance is also poor.Faculties of Business, Australian higher education, Cluster analysis, Factor analysis

How often should you have dental visits?

Dental diseases are a costly public health issue that disproportionately affect disadvantaged people.1,2 However in Australia, access to oral health care services is determined largely by the ability to pay. In recent years, there has been growing concern about inequities in access to care, with a particular focus on the length of time people are waiting to access state and territory-funded public dental services. In response to these concerns, the Gillard government established a National Advisory Council on Dental Health in 2011. In August 2012, the government announced a new dental reform package that would replace two of its existing dental programs – the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme and Medicare Teen Dental program – both of which provide benefits to patients through the Medicare scheme. In contrast, the new reform package provides more funding to state and territory governments so that they can reduce public dental waiting lists and establish more effective and efficient dental care for low income families and children. To implement the new reform package, policymakers will need to make important decisions about access to publicly-funded dental care: who should be eligible, how often should they be able to access services, and what services should be covered

Multiple disruptions: circumstances and experiences of young people living with homelessness and unemployment

This article is about young people who have experienced both homelessness and unemployment, with their interacting impacts. While ‘young people’ is usually understood to include those beyond childhood and up to 25 years of age, the homelessness services that initiated YP4 decided that the project should focus on people in the first one-third of their expected working lives. Thus the eligible age group for YP4 was 18−35 years. In practice, 75 per cent of participants were aged 25 years and under. This paper presents a more detailed descriptive profile than has previously been published regarding the circumstances of young people living with homelessness and unemployment. This profile confirms and adds quantification to previously published material on the complex disadvantages experienced by these young people. Our findings are indicative of the circumstances of the broader population of young Australians in these circumstances

Xavier Herbert: Forgotten or Repressed?

Xavier Herbert is one of Australia’s outstanding novelists and one of the more controversial. In his time, he was also an outspoken public figure. Yet many young Australians today have not heard of the man or his novels. His key works Capricornia (1938) and Poor Fellow My Country (1975) won major awards and were judged as highly significant on publication, yet there has been relatively little analysis of their impact. Although providing much material for Baz Luhrmann’s blockbuster film Australia (2008), his works are rarely recommended as texts in school curricula or in universities. Gough Whitlam took a particular interest in the final draft of Poor Fellow My Country, describing it as a work of ‘national significance’ and ensuring the manuscript was sponsored to final publication. In 1976 Randolph Stow described it as ‘THE Australian classic’. Yet, a search of the Australian Literature database will show that it is one of the most under-read and least taught works in the Australian literary canon. In our view, an examination of his legacy is long overdue. This collection brings together new scholarship that explores the possible reasons for Herbert’s eclipse within public recognition, from his exposure of unpalatable truths such as interracial intimacy, to his relationship with fame. This reevaluation gives new readings of the works of this important if not troublesome public intellectual and author

How can rural health be improved through community participation?

Executive summary Rural Australians generally experience poorer health than their city counterparts. Rural Australia is a vast geographical region, with significant diversity, where there is good health and prosperity, as well as disadvantage. The purpose of this issue brief is to provide evidence on how the health of rural Australians can be improved through community participation initiatives, which are currently being funded and delivered by health services and networks. Rural Australians need innovative health services that are tailored to the local context and meet increasing healthcare demands, without increases to expenditure. There are community participation approaches supported by research that can improve existing practice. Avoiding duplication, including the current work of Medicare Locals and Local Hospital Networks, is important for ensuring good outcomes from community participation initiatives. The following recommendations are made to improve practice: New ways to contract and pay for health services are needed, which use ideas developed with communities, within current budgets State and federal government competitive grants and tenders should prioritise proposals that demonstrate effective community participation approaches Community-based services, such as community health centres, Medicare Locals and Local Health Networks, have an important role to play in facilitating community participation, including: Building partnerships between existing services and leveraging existing participation strategies, rather than developing new services or standalone initiatives—to leverage available funds and maximise outcomes Employment of a jointly-appointed, paid community leadership position across existing community-based health services, to avoid duplication and overcome barriers of over-consultation and volunteer fatigue Formal and robust evaluation of initiatives is necessary to guide future policy and research A national innovative online knowledge sharing portal is required to share best practice in rural community participation, save time and money on ineffective approaches, and to support the rural health workforce

Social determinants and maternal exposure to intimate partner violence of obstetric patients with severe maternal morbidity in the intensive care unit: a systematic review protocol

Introduction: Maternal mortality is a potentially preventable public health issue. Maternal morbidity is increasingly of interest to aid the reduction of maternal mortality. Obstetric patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) are an important part of the global burden of maternal morbidity. Social determinants influence health outcomes of pregnant women. Additionally, intimate partner violence has a great negative impact on women's health and pregnancy outcome. However, little is known about the contextual and social aspects of obstetric patients treated in the ICU. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of the social determinants and exposure to intimate partner violence of obstetric patients admitted to an ICU. Methods and analysis: A systematic search will be conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, ProQuest, LILACS and SciELO from 2000 to 2016. Studies published in English and Spanish will be identified in relation to data reporting on social determinants of health and/or exposure to intimate partner violence of obstetric women, treated in the ICU during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy. Two reviewers will independently screen for study eligibility and data extraction. Risk of bias and assessment of the quality of the included studies will be performed by using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist. Data will be analysed and summarised using a narrative description of the available evidence across studies. This systematic review protocol will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines. Ethics and dissemination: Since this systematic review will be based on published studies, ethical approval is not required. Findings will be presented at La Trobe University, in Conferences and Congresses, and published in a peer-reviewed journal