Sociologists and the ERA

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative is managed by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and was implemented in 2010. The ERA assesses research quality within Australia’s higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts. Sociology was assessed as part of Cluster Four: Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences (SBE). The next ERA round will be in 2012. Further information is available here.

ERA 2012 round

CHASS Workshop 7 October 2011, QUT, Brisbane

Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) published a peice on the ERA Workshop in their October newsletter: We need to talk about the ERA…

Draft 2012 Journal List

The draft journal list for the 2012 round of the ERA has been released and suggested amendments will be accepted by Monday 19 September. A wide range of journals have now been coded as Sociology ’1608′. Go to http://www.arc.gov.au/era/era_2012/era_consultation.htm.

Jo Lindsay 6/9/2011

Improvements (?) to the ERA announced on May 30 2011: What it means for Sociology

The ARC has announced improvements to the next round of the ERA – details are here.

The major issues to note from the ARC announcement on May 30 are;

1. The journal ranking list will be scrapped and more power/discretion to determine quality will be shifted to the expert review panels (RECs). The clear flaws in the ranking system, the difficulty of maintaining the list and the intense lobbying over the list have no doubt led to this change.
2. There will be greater flexibility to recognise interdisciplinary work and for institutions to determine what disciplines publications will be counted under.

What do these changes mean for our discipline? On the face of it these changes are positive – no more wrangling over journal rankings and more flexibility for universities to decide how they will be assessed. But one big problem remains and will perhaps intensify –the peer review process did not work well for Sociology in the last round and the review panels will be given more power to decide on quality and our collective fate in the next round.

Jo Lindsay 23/6/11

Information on the journal list to be used in the 2012 round

See information on the refined ERA journal indicator here.

The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) have welcomed the changes to the journal ranking system. Further details here.

ERA 2010 round

TASA’s Response to the ERA (Debra King, President)

Of the 34 universities assessed in sociology as part of the ERA, 41% received a ranking of 3 (world standard) or above. Overall,  sociology received a ranking of 2.4 so there is definitely room for improvement. We would like to hear your views on how sociology as a discipline can improve its ranking. As part of our consultation process, we are interested in your ideas about how sociology might position itself better and how the ERA process might be improved.

To start thinking through some of the issues, TASA asked Mark Western to contribute his ideas, which are below. In a thought-provoking piece, Mark identifies a number of aspects of the ERA that, if changed, could have real bearing on sociology’s ranking. Jo Lindsay, TASA Vice President and coordinator of TASA’s ERA response, has also contributed a short article. Outside of sociology, an article by Judith Brett (The Australian 9/2/11) is informative. Please read these in conjunction with information on the ERA website and contact TASA (admin@tasa.org.au) with any strategic, practical ideas you may have about how sociology can improve its performance in the next round. These will be posted below for all members to read.

We also encourage you to participate in the public consultation process – please nominate TASA as the peak body organisation associated with sociology journals. TASA will then become one of the organisations officially ‘consulted’ during the ERA Review process. TASA has conducted a review of the journals in consultation with members. The list, below ‘TASA ticket for the ERA consultation’, has details that may help you complete the forms.

2010 ERA Articles and Discussion Pieces

‘Some thoughts on the ERA 2010 Assessment Process and Some Suggestions for TASA to consider for 2012‘ by Mark Western

‘ERA 2010 – The wash up for Sociology’ by Jo Lindsay

‘ERA and the Social Sciences’ by Judith Brett

‘TASA ticket’ for the ERA public consultation

ERA Discussion Forum

A discussion forum on what the ERA means for Sociology is now open. If you would like to add a discussion item, please email your comments, in Word, to admin@tasa.org.au.

ERA Results

The 2010 results of the ERA have now been announced and are available at:
http://www.arc.gov.au/era/outcomes_2010.htm

The next ERA round will be in 2012. Information is available at:
http://www.arc.gov.au/era/era_2012/era_2012.htm

Suggestions

Suggest new links or articles for this page by emailing:
Dr Jo Lindsay, TASA executive member (Strategic Direction and ERA)
Jo.Lindsay@ monash.edu.au