The results of the 2012 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) were released by the Australian Research Council (ARC) on Thursday 6th December 2012. .
ERA is an assessment system that evaluates the quality of the research conducted at Australian universities by discipline. It identifies the research strengths of individual universities and of the sector as a whole.

The submission guidelines for ERA 2012 (PDF) have been released. The ERA 2012 Discipline Matrix (Excel) and the ERA-SEER 2012 Technology Pack (Zip file) are now available as well.

The ERA 2012 Submission Guidelines detail the rules and processes for the ERA 2012 submission phase.

Professor Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council, has announced Elsevier's SciVerse Scopus as the citation provider for ERA 2012, in a press release today.

The ARC has released the draft ERA 2012 Journal List for public comment. The draft incorporates feedback from the journal list public consultation phase (14 February - 4 April 2011). The ARC will accept comments on the draft list until 4pm (AEST) on Monday, 19 September 2011.

The list can be downloaded in Excel format here.

What are the refinements for ERA 2012?

On 30 May 2011, Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, announced improvements to the ERA methodology, based on feedback received and experience gained from the ERA 2010 evaluations. These are:

Senator Kim Carr has released a ministerial statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee regarding improvements to Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA).

The senator has approved a set of enhancements recommended by the ARC while maintaining the rigour and comparability of the ERA exercise. These improvements are:

Ministerial statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee - Improvements to Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)