Research funding systems in Australia, New Zealand and the UK: policy settings and perceived effects

The ‘logic of escalation’ in performance measurement: An analysis of the dynamics of a research evaluation system

“…One important element of this [ 7 1 _ T D $ D I F F ] is [ 7 2 _ T D $ D I F F ] the tendency to rely on various sets of quantitative indicators in the evaluation of research activities[ 1 1 _ T D $ D I F F ] to the relative exclusion of other modes of[ 9 _ T D $ D I F F ] assessment[ 7 3 _ T D $ D I F F ] , which has been particularly pronounced in Australia (see, e.g., Butler, 2003;Gläser & Laudel, 2007;Larkins, 2011;Lewis & Ross, 2011;Marginson & Considine, 2000). Despite being officially labeled a research quality-focused exercise, ERA bases its assessment of research performances largely on a range of quantitative output measures such as number of publications, number of citations and amount of research income achieved within a given timeframe.…”

“…While focusing here primarily on performance-based governance at the national system level, it is worth noting that Australian universities have by and large reacted to this increase in governmental scrutiny mainly through internally replicating the externally imposed performance measures, and have done so in a manner that is generally quite undiscerning with regard to long-established differences in disciplinary cultures (seeGläser, Lange, Laudel, & Schimank, 2010;Lewis & Ross, 2011;Marginson & Considine, 2000).…”

Research productivity and research system attitudes

“…Much time and energy has been devoted to identifying the shortcomings, inequities and undesirable consequences of research performance systems (for a summary of these, see Lewis and Ross, 2011). Performance-based research funding systems are thought to have affected how academics do research and what and how much they produce (Butler, 2002;Hicks, 2009;Lewis, 2013).…”

“…Three factors were identified from this, as shown in table 2, which were labelled 'collaboration', 'benefits' and 'impacts' (see Lewis and Ross, 2011). The first factor (collaboration) contained a group of questions relating to perceived system encouragements to work with others.…”

Different recipes for the same dish: Comparing policies for scientific excellence across different countries

“…A generic measure is to make research funding conditional upon performance. Several countries have introduced performance-based research funding system in which resources are directed towards excellent performers (Hicks 2012; Lewis & Ross 2011;Lewis 2015;Jonkers & Zacharewicz 2016). In addition, funding has shifted from institutional core funding to competitive project funding (Lepori et al 2007;Jongbloed et al 2015).…”