ARC-supported research: the impact of journal publication output 2001-2005

This week the Australian Research Council (ARC) released a report conducted by Bev Biglia and Linda Butler of the Research Evaluation and Policy Project (REPP) on the impact of journal publication output from ARC funded research. The study focuses on the number of citations each paper received relative to the average number of citations a paper received in the World in that same field in the same time period. In other words - are these particular papers cited more often than the average? If the papers in a particular field are cited more often than the World average then you can say that these papers, and this field of research, have had more impact than the average. The number of citations that your paper receives can be determined by checking citation data suppliers such as Thomson-Reuters' Web of Science or Elsevier's Scopus - and these can be benchmarked against the Australian or World average citation rates for the same field through various products offered by the same companies.

It is encouraging to see that publications resulting from ARC funded research are generally above the World citation rates in almost all fields of research. Similar bibliometrics will be used as one of the suite of indicators of quality in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative that is currently underway in the higher education sector. Universities can measure their research impact through publications against World benchmarks using the exact same methodology as in this report. In fact, individual researchers can also use the same methodology to rate their own research output against World benchmarks provided their research output volume is high enough to make the metrics significant.

The media release and report can be found at the ARC's webpage here: http://www.arc.gov.au/media/releases/media_15Oct09.htm

National Ride to Work Day

National Ride to Work Day came around again today - it doesn't seem like a whole year since I last "joined the commuter evolution". Our office only managed two riders today which I guess is understandable because the weather was absolutely awful this morning. I got completely drenched on the way into work but luckily had taken a bag of work clothes and a towel into work the day before so I would have warm clothes to change into in the morning.

Ride to work day is a great way to kick off the habit of riding to work more regularly - although this year I might wait for it to warm up a little first. Riding to work is great for a number of reasons: it is a really good way to start the day as it combines a workout with the commute to work; it is also great for the environment with one less car on the road (unless of course you get your wife to pick you up in the car on the way home that night).

You can check out more at the Ride to Work webpage: http://www.bv.com.au/ride-to-work/