Australian Research Council (ARC) Chief Executive Officer, Professor Margaret Sheil, announced Elsevier’s SciVerse Scopus as the successful tenderer to provide citation information for the next round of the Australian Government’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative.


“ERA is a world-class research evaluation initiative based on a combination of expert review and indicators of research excellence,” said Professor Sheil.


“As citation analysis is one of the indicators used in ERA, it is crucial to appoint a suitable citation provider. Citation analysis is a widely recognised bibliometric tool for assessing the quality of scholarly research.”


Scopus provided the citation information for the 2009 ERA trial and the first full ERA exercise in 2010, which was the first ever comprehensive assessment of the research effort of Australia’s universities.


“In its continuing role as citation provider for ERA 2012, Scopus will help ensure the collection and analysis of citation data for ERA is accurate and not onerous for universities.


“The ARC welcomes our continued partnership with SciVerse Scopus, and acknowledges the strong business commitment that they have shown throughout the evolution of ERA.”

The ERA 2012 evaluation will open for submissions in March 2012. For more information visit the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative page.