Academic publishing in the Australian changing funding environment: an analysis of journal ranking in the geosciences

Abstract

The 1990s witnessed constant changes in the funding environment of Australian universities and research organisations, a major component of which was the encouragement of collaboration with industry through the establishment of research centres. The field of geosciences has been successful in developing and maintaining linkages with industry partners and this has resulted in the establishment of research centres. The paper assesses whether the close collaboration with industry has changed the publication patterns of geoscience researchers based on the case study of three Australian centres: a key centre for teaching and research, a special research centre and a cooperative research centre. The focus of the analysis is on: (1) the choice of journals when publishing in the geosciences; and (2) the importance of journal rankings, such as the ones produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and officially recognised by the Australian federal government for funding purposes. The analysis confirms the importance of ISI journal titles for the Australian geoscience community as far as refereed journal publications are concerned. Nevertheless, the researchers use a very selected number of titles which is determined by the specifics of their work (research topics and geographical areas) and the requirements of their environment, including university, industry and government.