AUSTRALIA: Journal rankings a 'sword over academia'

Journal rankings are "a spectre haunting universities everywhere" according to a British business academic who also attacked a new University of Queensland internal index that measures research performance, writes Jill Rowbotham for The Australian.

Dennis Tourish, professor of leadership and deputy director of research at Kent Business School, said journal lists such as those used in the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative were inherently flawed and increasingly being used to micro-manage the research effort.

In an article published online, he argues that academics are being steered towards publishing in preferred journals and "lambasted for their inadequacy if they do not". On the subject of the University of Queensland's Q Index, he writes that had the university's management "expressly set out to reduce intrinsic motivation, pointlessly extend managerial oversight and demoralise people they could scarcely have done better".
Full report on The Australian site