ERA 2015 Submission FAQs
Contents
Changes for ERA 2015
What has changed between ERA 2012 and ERA 2015?
Calculating the 30% sample for peer review
How is the 30% sample of all research outputs for peer review calculated?
Does the 30% of output types apply to individual non-traditional research output types or is it 30% of the total number of non-traditional research outputs?
Eligible Researchers
Are fractional full-time staff with an effective appointment of less than 0.4 FTE eligible, and if so, which of their outputs are can be submitted?
Income
How is Category 4 (CRC) income reported in an ERA 2015 Submission?
Explanatory Statements and research statements
For ERA 2015, Research Statements have to be 2,000 characters and Explanatory Statements have to be 10,000 characters. Do these character counts include spaces?
Research Outputs
When should research presented at a conference be submitted as a journal article?
How does a non-traditional research output (such as a law reform commission report) fits into the 'Research Report for an External Body' category?
What is the limit on NTRO file sizes and how is a file size larger than the limit submitted?
Applied Measures
What constitutes a 'spin-off company' of an institution in relation to applied measures such as patents?
Esteem Measures
Do all esteem measures follow the eligible researcher?
Data
When will Submission Stage 0 open and how long for?
Will there be certain business rules that will not be available during Stage 0?
Do Universities have to resubmit in stage 1 if they have submitted in stage 0?
Why is gender data now recorded in ERA?
What is a publisher ID?
What code is used in XML file for ERA 2015 Publisher ID "other" and ERA 2015 Conference ID "other"?
My institution uses a third party provider to assist in its ERA submission process. Can I supply the ERA 2015 Submission Journal List, the ERA 2015 Conference List and/or the ERA 2015 Publisher list to a company or organisation outside my own institution?
ERA 2015 Publication Tagging
Where can I find further information about ERA 2015 publication tagging?
Contact
Who to contact if I have queries?
Changes for ERA 2015
What has changed between ERA 2012 and ERA 2015?
Following the ARC's review of ERA 2012 and consultation with the higher education sector the ARC has made several changes to ERA 2015 from ERA 2012, in order to improve the ERA process. A summary of the key changes for ERA 2015 is available on pages 7 to 9 of the ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines.
Calculating the 30% sample for peer review
How is the 30% sample of all research outputs for peer review calculated?
For the disciplines that are subject to peer review, institutions must nominate 30% of the apportioned value of each research output type for each four-digit FoR.
For example, an institution submits 31 conference papers for FoR code 1603 (Demography). When nominating the 30% sample, the institution must nominate 10 conference papers (30% x 31 - 9.3, rounded up to 10). Where the apportioned value for a research output type is greater than zero, at least one research output must be provided for peer review.
Does the 30% of output types apply to individual non-traditional research output types or is it 30% of the total number of non-traditional research outputs?
For the purposes of constructing the sample of outputs for peer review, non-traditional research outputs are a single category. The sample will be 30% of the total number of non-traditional research outputs. The intention of the example in section 3.5 of theSubmissionGuidelinesis to show 'non-traditional research outputs' as a category alongside the traditional research output categories 'books', 'journal articles' etc.
Eligible Researchers
Are fractional full-time staff with an effective appointment of less than 0.4 FTE eligible, and if so, which of their outputs are can be submitted?
Staff employed less than 0.4 fulltime equivalent (FTE) at an institution at the staff census date must have a publication association with the institution. A publication association is most commonly demonstrated through a byline on a research output showing an affiliation between the researcher and the institution. For these staff, the institution should submit all of the researcher's eligible research outputs (including those without a publication association) within the reference period (see sections 5.3.1.1, 5.3.1.3 and 5.3.1.4 of the ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines). The ARC also recognises that there may be instances where a staff member does not meet the publication association due to significant career interruptions because of personal circumstances. If the institution wishes to submit staff (and their research outputs) in these circumstances it should write to the ARC prior to the close of Submission Stage 1 (13 March 2015). The institution would be expected to show that the staff member would otherwise have been reasonably expected to have their research outputs included in ERA 2015 had it not been for the significant career interruption due to personal circumstances such as carer responsibilities or medical reasons.
Income
How is Category 4 (CRC) income reported in an ERA 2015 Submission?
Section 5.5.1 of the ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines states that for an institution to include research income in its ERA submission, it must have been reported as part of HERDC for the relevant year of the research income reference period. The Guidelines also say that the reference period for research income is 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2013. These guidelines apply to all research income, including CRC income. For Category 4 (CRC) income, this means that institutions must submit income for the first half of 2013 (January to June) but not the second half of 2013 (July to December) - the reason being that CRC income for the second half of 2013 will not have been reported as part of HERDC prior to the commencement of the ERA 2013 Submission process.
Explanatory Statements and research statements
For ERA 2015, Research Statements have to be 2,000 characters and Explanatory Statements have to be 10,000 characters. Do these character counts include spaces?
The requirements for Research Statements and Explanatory Statements are the same. Research Statements are submitted as plain text as part of an institution's ERA 2015 XML. The 2,000 character limit includes spaces. Explanatory Statements are submitted directly into the ERA IT system (SEER) and can be edited and managed separately to the institution's XML. The 10,000 character limit includes spaces.
Research Outputs
When should research presented at a conference be submitted as a journal article?
If the research was first published in peer reviewed conference proceedings or in a special edition of a journal specifically for the conference, the output should be submitted as a conference publication. If the research was not published in full in peer reviewed conference proceedings and was later published in a journal, the research output should be submitted as a journal article if the journal is included in the ERA 2015 Journal List.
How does a non-traditional research output (such as a law reform commission report) fits into the 'Research Report for an External Body' category?
A research output may be submitted in the 'Research Report for an External Body' category if it is a research report that is commissioned or solicited by an external body. The definition of an external body broadly covers government departments or organisations, industry groups and associations, not-for-profit sector bodies, and other external bodies. The research report must also meet the general requirements for non-traditional research outputs, including meeting the definition of research. Outputs not commissioned or solicited (such as submissions to public consultations or public inquiries, online commentaries or briefing notes) are ineligible for submission in this category.
What is the limit on NTRO file sizes and how is a file size larger than the limit submitted?
Individual Research Output Digital Assets (RODA) files in repositories for the purposes of ERA should be no greater than 30 MB (see section 4.2 of the ERA-SEER 2015 Technical Specifications). Individual research outputs that exceed this maximum size will not be handled by SEER and must be broken down into files which do not exceed the maximum size. The file-size limitation stipulated is for individual RODAs. So a Portfolio of works has no file-size limitation provided that each individual work within it does not exceed 30MB.
Applied Measures
What constitutes a 'spin-off company' of an institution in relation to applied measures such as patents?
The ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines provide that institutions must submit Plant Breeder's Rights (section 5.6.2.1), Patents (section 5.6.2.3) and Registered Designs (section 5.6.2.5) and Research Commercialisation Income (5.6.2.7) as applied measures if they were granted to an eligible researcher, the institution, or an institution-owned subsidiary or spin-off company associated with the institution. Institutions must only submit Plant Breeder's Rights, Patents, Registered Designs, and Research Commercialisation Income for ERA 2015 applied measures reference period (1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013). In this context, ownership of a company associated with the institution refers to an ownership interest in a company which was dependent upon the licensing of intellectual property (IP) or the bestowing of tacit knowledge from the institution (or a commercialisation company wholly owned by the institution) in order to become operational.
Esteem Measures
Do all esteem measures follow the eligible researcher?
Esteem measures follow the eligible researcher. For example, if the researcher was at one institution when they received an Australia Council grant or fellowship and at another institution at the staff census date (31 March 2014), only the latter institution may claim the esteem measure (see section 5.7 of the ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines). The only exception to this is nationally competitive research fellowships. In this case, institutions are required to submit details of eligible fellowships for which they have been administering/host organisation at any time during the esteem measures reference period, regardless of the recipient's place of employment as at the staff census date (see section 5.7.2.5 of the ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines).
Data
When will Submission Stage 0 open and how long for?
Stage 0 commences on Monday, 19 January 2015 and concludes 5.00pm Canberra time on Thursday, 19 February 2015.
Will there be certain business rules that will not be available during Stage 0?
In Stage 0, institutions will have the option of testing the data structures of submission files in SEER. This period will not activate business rule numbers 24 and 117. Stage 0 is designed to assist institutions in removing possible validation errors in a submission prior to Stage 1. Any submission file uploaded in SEER during Stage 0 will not carry forward to Stage 1. For a submission file to be accepted for ERA it must be re-uploaded in Stage 1. The ARC encourages all institutions to use the opportunity to test submission file data structures.
Do Universities have to resubmit in stage 1 if they have submitted in stage 0?
Yes. Any submission file uploaded in SEER during Stage 0 will not carry forward to Stage 1. For a submission file to be accepted for ERA it must be re-uploaded in Stage 1. The ARC encourages all institutions to use the Stage 0 opportunity to test submission file data structures.
Why is gender data now recorded in ERA?
Gender data are being collected for ERA 2015 to improve the ARC's ability to understand issues relating to gender and equity in relation to Australia's university research landscape. The data will not form part of the evaluation process. Peer reviewers and Research Evaluation Committees will not be supplied with the gender data included in an institution's submission.
What is a publisher ID?
Institutions must avoid using different names for the same publisher when submitting ERA data. For example, they must not submit 'UNSW Press' as the publisher for one output and 'University of New South Wales Press' as a publisher for another output. The ARC has constructed a list of 'standardised' publisher names as a tool for submission and each publisher on the list is linked with a unique publisher ID. The approach is designed to reduce the burden for universities of submission by providing the pre-populated list, to ensure the integrity of the submission data, and to ensure the publisher data presented to the ERA reviewers are robust and readily interpreted.
What code is used in XML file for ERA 2015 Publisher ID "other" and ERA 2015 Conference ID "other"?
Please refer to ERA-SEER 2015 Business Rules and Verification BR125 – ERA Publisher ID (p73) and BR126 – ERA Conference ID (p75).
My institution uses a third party provider to assist in its ERA submission process. Can I supply the ERA 2015 Submission Journal List, the ERA 2015 Conference List and/or the ERA 2015 Publisher list to a company or organisation outside my own institution?
Universities should inform the ARC at era[@]arc.gov.au if a third party provider needs to be contacted regarding supply of submission lists. If third parties outside the university sector require a copy of these lists to support the submission requirements of any institution, the Australian Research Council will directly approach the provider and ask that the third party provider indicate the institution/s that will be using their product for the ERA 2015 submission. The lists will be supplied to providers in confidence, to support the named institution's ERA 2015 submission only and they are not for external distribution nor for general use in any product/s now or in the future. We expect the third party to indicate their agreement to these conditions prior to the supply of the three lists. Following this agreement the lists will be supplied to the third party directly by the ARC.
ERA 2015 Publication Tagging
Where can I find further information about ERA 2015 publication tagging?
Institutions have been notified by Scopus, through their ERA Liaison Officers, about details of the ERA 2015 publication tagging service. Further information can be obtained from theERA 2015 Citation Provider pageandthe Scopus EID Tagging Web Portal.
Contact
Who to contact if I have queries?
In the first instance you should contact yourERA Liaison Officer. ARC contacts are as follow – email or call the ERA Helpdesk on 02 6287 6755 (between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Canberra time, Monday-Friday).