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Assessing political science quality: 'excellence in research for Australia'

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 16:15 authored by Aynsley KellowAynsley Kellow
The results from the first foray into the research quality in Australia, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), were released in 2011. This article critically assesses the methodology of ERA and its application to the discipline of political science. It uses two other assessments of research quality in the discipline to confirm that the results for political science provide a credible result, as the rank order of departments is broadly compatible with these earlier exercises. The article then shows how the overall assessments for disciplines reflect the methodology employed, and that the average score for the discipline does not provide a credible benchmark against political science globally. While research funding decisions within disciplines are likely to be made according to within-discipline ranks, the use of descriptors relating the numerical score to ‘world class’ have undervalued the quality of the discipline relative to other disciplines and this risks affecting the perceptions of policymakers and impacting funding for the discipline as a whole.

History

Publication title

European Political Science

Volume

11

Issue

4

Pagination

567-580

ISSN

1680-4333

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan Ltd

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

Copyright 2012 European Consortium for Political Research

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in human society

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