The ARC continues work on new measures of research output and insists that despite not measuring national research performance since the last ERA in 2018, existing rankings are not the answer.
This process has been going on for over a year with the Council talking to the research establishment – technical and policy experts in universities and government.
The ARC reports that what they want is an evaluation model that:
- Enhances “understanding and effectiveness” of research capacity by institution and across the sector;
- Helps universities identify ways to improve; and
- Demonstrates return on government investment.
What consultations revealed they definitely do not want is rankings. “Evaluation should focuses ‘on joint efforts to address shared societal challenges’ over competition,” the Council states.
Which looks what they will get. The ARC invites experts to apply by May to join working six groups on:
- Data, representation and sensitivity issues in Indigenous research;
- Metadata, standardisation and interoperability for research repositories;
- Opportunities and risk using AI; and
- Diversity, “creative practice, grey literature, and multidisciplinary research”
- As well as two groups that could include rankable output; “data and case studies” for “demonstrating impact” and “indicators and metrics” for “innovation, diversity and validity.”
Overall, however. the ARC appears to again assure research administrators that there will be no more labour-intensive metrics. As Margaret Sheil’s 2023 review of the ARC Act put it, “we are using a Ferrari to pop down the shops for milk and bread.”