Presenting your track record for ARC proposals

Mariella Herberstein: marie.herberstein@mq.edu.auMary Spongberg: mary.spongberg@mq.edu.auRobyn Langdon: robyn.langdon@mq.edu.au

F-section (discovery)• Details on your career and opportunities for

research over the last 5 years• Recent significant publications• Ten career-best publications• Further evidence in relation to research impact

and contributions to the field over the last 10 years.• A statement on your most significant

contributions to this research field of this Proposal.

C-section (DECRA)

• Details on your career and opportunities for research over the last 5 years

• Significant publications• Statement on your contributions to the

research field of this Proposal

Details on your career and opportunities for research over the last 5 years

• Research opportunities• Type of appointment (teaching load)– Do not complain about teaching!

• Career interruptions (parental, health etc)• Mentoring & facilities available– Be positive!

Recent significant publications

• Only in press (give date)• Number publications• Provide metrics (see info later)• Spell out journal name!• Consistent formatting!• ERA journal ranking ?

Ten career-best publications (only discovery)

• Explain (in 30 words or less) why this paper is significant• Provide metrics!

Further evidence in relation to research impact and contributions to the field over the last 10 years

(only discovery)

• Research output other than publications– Competitive grants, conference organisation &

society offices, invited talks, plenaries, postgrad completions

• Evidence for quality of publications– Summarise metrics, how many papers in total,

how many citations in total, other peer review? Citation rates relative to field, media coverage of research…

A statement on your most significant contributions to this research field of this Proposal.

• Trick here is not to just repeat what you have done!• How has your research changed the field?• Paradigm shift?• New method that is now used widely? • New discovery that changes how researchers

interpret phenomena?

Metrics & YOU!

Metrics are your friends!

• Like it or not, metrics are used in assessing track records

• Pretty standard in the sciences, less so in the humanities

• Any metrics need to be presented within the context of the field– ARC panel is multi-disciplinary

What are metrics?

• Number & impact of publications

• Number of papers– Seems straight forward, but does need an

explanation of your productivity– Worked up a new system– Difficult & long term field work– Published large monographs– Just started a new position

Data bases

• Web of Science• Scopus• Google Scholar

• All track journals in sciences, social sciences, medical sciences & humanities

• Google scholar also books• Will generate slightly different metrics

Quality of publications

• Journal impact factors are one way of estimating quality

• Vary greatly between fields• Better to use journal ranking within field– E.g. Studies in Science Education– IF = 1.267– Ranking: 13/33 in Education, Scientific Disciplines

Citations & other impact

• More or less expected to provide citations• Several data bases– Web of Science– Scopus– Google Citations

• Put citations into context• Do cite your own work!

H-index

• Summarises your overall citation performance• h publications with at least h citations• E.g. h-index = 13• 13 papers with at least 13 citations

Other impact measures

• Download data of your paper– Most journals now keep track of the top

downloaded paper

• Peer evaluation – E.g. Faculty of 1000 (http://f1000.com/)

Make it easy to find you

• Can you be easily found in WOS, Scopus & Google scholar?

• Use Researcher ID (WOS) or Scopus author identifier

• Publication list: http://publicationslist.org/

Get feedback

• Have others read your F or C section!