Research management systems as an evolutionary backwater: A management system for Australian research quality framework data

Since 2004 the former Australian Government had been working on developing some means of measuring the quality of research from Australian universities. A recent change of Government has meant that the implementation of a Research Quality Framework (RFQ) in the form proposed by the former government will not now take place. The new Commonwealth Government made an election promise that if elected it would review this controversial plan. It did so and in June 2008 preliminary plans for a new version of the RQF, called Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) were unveiled. One aspect of the planned RQF that will probably be retained, however, is the creation of digital repositories for storing copies of all research output at the local university level, linked with a central government repository. This paper discusses the RQF with particular reference to the creation of digital repositories and the likely RQF Information Management System.