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(1) The Measuring Individual Research Activity Policy establishes Victoria University’s model for the measurement of individual academic research activity (or MORA); a mechanism designed to drive institutional research performance and align individual researcher effort with strategic objectives. (2) The model includes performance benchmarks for academic levels based on external, discipline-specific data sourced from the most recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and/or equivalent national research evaluation system(s). (3) This Procedure details the methods and processes involved in calculating each eligible academic staff member’s Measure of Research Activity, or MORA. (4) HESF: 4.1 Research; 4.2 Research Training. (5) This Procedure applies to: (6) This Procedure does not apply to: (7) Non-TRA and non-ROA staff may choose to opt-in to the MORA process. (8) Commissioned Research Reports: A written research output commissioned or solicited by an external body (such as a government body or private company) that meets the definition of research. Commissioned reports that are subject to confidentiality clauses will be accepted and contribute to an individual’s MORA calculation. (9) Creative Works as Research: Research outputs that meet the definition of research and are manifested in either a creative work or curated event. (10) Excellence in Research for Australia(ERA): Australia’s national research evaluation framework administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC). (11) Extended Consecutive Leave: Any extended consecutive leave of minimum three-month duration, including Parental Leave, extended Personal (Sick/Carer’s) Leave and Workcover leave, beginning up to half a year prior to and/or during a reference period will be taken into consideration in calculating an individual’s MORA. In the Work Years calculation, the duration of an individual’s extended leave (calculated by months) will be augmented by 25% to allow for a research productivity recovery period. (12) Fields of Research (FoRs): The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) code that categorises research and development activity according to the methodology used in the research. The classification is hierarchical and comprises three levels, namely Divisions (2 digits), Groups (4 digits), and Fields (6 digits). Each level is identified by a unique number. (13) New Staff: Teaching & Research and Research Only academic staff who have not held an academic position of employment at Victoria University for the full three years immediately prior to the year that the MORA calculation is made. (14) Pre-eminent and Renowned Publisher List: A consolidated list of SENSE (Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment, Netherlands) and City University of Hong Kong academic publisher rankings (for books and book chapters). (16) Research Income: Income from external sources shown in the University’s financial accounts that is eligible for and has been submitted as part of Victoria University’s Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC). The net amount will reflect transfers to and from other institutions. (17) Research Indicators: Core research indicators for MORA comprise research income, research publications, and Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student completions. (18) Research Publications: Research output that meets the definition of research and has been published or made publicly available within the reference period (confidential research reports excepted), and submitted and/or claimed in VU Elements. Research publications include Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs), such as research reports and creative works as research. Revisions of research publications, within or across output types, will be accepted only where the revision contains substantial new research content. This requirement applies to all MORA rounds and across MORA reference periods. (19) Research Student Completions: The reported completion of a Research Doctorate, or a Masters by Research program at Victoria University. Completions for a given year are those conferred by Council by 31 December of the same year. (20) SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): A measure of scientific influence of scholarly journals indexed by Scopus that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journal. (21) Scopus: An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, including scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. The database delivers a comprehensive overview of the world’s research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. (22) Timely Completion: Completion time refers to the time elapsed from a graduate research student’s initial enrolment to the date at which their thesis is submitted for examination. Timely completion is as specified by the Higher Degrees by Research Procedure 3 Pre-Candidature and Candidature. (23) Traditional Research Outputs: Comprised of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and refereed conference papers. (24) VU Elements: The research information management system that provides a single source for all of the University’s research publication data. (25) Work Years: The number of years based on the number of months employed within the reference period (minus months of extended leave x 1.25), expressed in half-year intervals: 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 years. (26) See Measuring Individual Research Activity Policy. (27) The results of the preliminary MORA calculation will be released by the 31 August in the calculation year. (28) The final calculation will be confirmed by 15 October in the calculation year. (29) A report on MORA annual and trend performance will be provided to the VUREG following completion of the annual MORA process. (30) Staff may access their MORA score online via the MoRA online portal. (31) Management personnel, including Executive Deans and Research Institute/Centre Directors, may access for evaluation purposes, aggregate and individual MORA data relevant to their organisational units via the MoRA online portal. (32) The MORA calculation method is as follows: (33) The reference period is the three most recent years for which audited data is available. For example, the MORA calculation performed in 2019 will use data collected from 2016, 2017 and 2018. (34) Individual benchmarks for research income and publications are: (35) Academic levels are accounted for in the calculation of individual benchmarks, giving recognition to higher performance expectations associated with experience and seniority. This is accounted for by incorporating a 1.5 performance ratio against the national benchmark per academic level, with the national benchmark assumed at Level C (see Table 1). (36) The national benchmark figures for research income and publications that relate to a staff member’s field of research profile are multiplied by the performance ratio applicable to the staff member’s academic level. (37) The resultant figures are the staff member’s individual benchmarks for research publications and income generation per year. (38) The work years by FTE calculation takes into account a staff member’s term of employment during the MORA reference period, fractional appointment, and any extended consecutive leave. Any conjoint arrangement will, in principle, be treated as a whole; for example, for a VU employee holding an employment arrangement with another institution where research productivity is similarly an expectation, the total FTE of that conjoint arrangement will apply (i.e. VU FTE + alternate institution FTE). (39) For (40) For new staff who are newly graduated PhDs with no prior academic employment, each year of PhD enrolment during the reference period is regarded as 0.33 years of FTE academic employment. (41) A staff member’s individual score is calculated based on all their eligible research indicators, irrespective of whether these indicators fit within their FoR profile. (42) New staff will have a MORA calculated on the basis of research performed over the reference period, including eligible activity prior to their appointment at VU (refer to Part F). (43) All research indicators will attract additional weightings to reflect the value of the activity to achieve the University’s strategic goals and targets as follows: (44) Only VU Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) reported research income, submitted each year to the Australian Government Department of Education Skills and Employment (or equivalent), will be included. The dollar amount recorded annually will be consistent with the process of revenue recognition defined in the HERDC Specifications documentation for any given year. (45) The dollar amount will be shared among the VU investigators listed in the funding agreement with the Primary Investigator counted twice and receiving a double share. For example, if the dollar amount is $100,000 and there are four VU investigators, of which one is the Primary Investigator, the $100,000 is divided by (4+1) and distributed as $40,000 to the Primary Investigator and $20,000 to the other three investigators. (46) Competitive grants with investigators from overseas institutions, as identified on funding coversheets, attract an international collaboration weighting with an additional 1.25 multiplier. (47) Recognised research publications attract category points: (48) Individual authorships are counted and receive full category points, regardless of the number of authors or creators on the output. (49) Quality weightings are applied to determine the publication base point. (50) The following is an exhaustive list of the quality multipliers available for research publications. The quality of a publication is measured at the time of the MORA calculation. (51) In accordance with VU’s Pre-eminent and Renowned Publisher list (available as a Quick Link on the MoRA online portal), Books (A1) and Book Chapters (B1) will attract a multiplier of: (52) Executive Deans or Research Program Leaders may present a case to and for approval by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research & Impact, for the adoption of an additional journal outlet ranking list in the VU-maintained list. Any ranking list the subject of such a request must have the following minimum characteristics: (53) Requests are to be submitted as follows: (54) The following quality multipliers will be applied: (55) Fully Refereed Conference Papers, eligible only for staff predominantly aligned with any of the two-digit FoRs 33 Built Environment & Design, 40 Engineering, and 46 Information & Computing Sciences, will reference the latest CORE Conference ranking lists and the following quality multipliers applied: (56) Any outputs published via predatory publishing will not be recognised in MORA calculations. The process by which predatory publishing outlets will be identified and made available to researching academics will be determined in collaboration with the Library. Further guidance is available in the Measuring Individual Research Activity - Predatory & Vanity Publishers Guideline. (57) Bonus points are determined by multiplying the publication base point by the bonus multiplier and adding this to the base point. The following bonus multipliers will apply: (58) A collaboration bonus for outputs with national and international co-authors will be applied: (59) Outputs published in Open Access outlets will attract a bonus multiplier of 0.05. For the purposes of MORA Open Access is defined as: (60) Creative Works as Research, consistent with ERA, are eligible for staff aligned with any of the following FoRs: 33 Built Environment & Design; 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism & Services; 36 Creative Arts & Writing; 38 Economics; 39 Education; 43 History, Heritage & Archaeology; 44 Human Society; 45 Indigenous Studies; 47 Language, Communication & Culture; 48 Law & Legal Studies; and 50 Philosophy & Religious Studies. (61) Creative works as research will be considered for MORA where a complete record exists in VU Elements, including: (62) Creative works as research may be collected into a portfolio where a series of works result from the same underlying research endeavour. A single work within the portfolio, on its own, may not meet the definition of research, but when collected together with other works, presents coherent research content. (63) Creative works as research, and associated claims made around scale and quality in the formal VU Elements record, will be subject to validation by a Creative Works as Research Evaluation Committee. (64) Scale: Each recognised creative work as research is awarded points according to its categorisation in one of three classification scales: (65) These base points for creative works as research will attract quality multipliers as follows: (66) Commissioned Research Reports will be considered for MORA where a complete record exists in VU Elements, including: (67) Commissioned research reports may be collected into a portfolio where a series of reports result from the same underlying research endeavour. A single report within the portfolio, on its own, may not meet the definition of research, but when collected together with other reports, presents coherent research content. (68) Commissioned research reports translated into a traditional output form may not be claimed for MORA. In this instance, the traditional output is preferentially considered and will be subject to the quality and bonus measures identified in (50)–(56)above. (69) Commissioned research reports will be subject to validation by an internal Commissioned Research Reports Evaluation Committee, including those marked as confidential. (70) Guidelines will be developed to support the treatment of commissioned research reports in calculating MORA. Any weightings identified in these guidelines will be picked up in this Procedure. (71) Only VU research student completions will be included. For new staff, completions of students while employed at another university may be considered where appropriate evidence is provided; refer to clause(86). (72) Full points will be awarded for timely completions only, in the year the student is conferred by Council. Points for a timely completion will be divided among the formally listed supervisors at the time of submission, with the distribution of points reflective of the supervision load of each supervisor. Points accruing per research degree type are: (73) Research student completion units will be reduced incrementally on a pro-rata basis up to and including 12 months for Professional Doctorates & PhDs, and 6 months for Research Masters after the timely completion period. (74) Where a thesis is given a high rating; i.e., an average score from the examiners of 2 or less, a quality rating of 1.5 will be applied to the completion points. (75) MORA calculates nationally-referenced research performance benchmarks tailored to specific fields of research. These benchmarks are created using the most recent ERA or equivalent data. The underlying formulae will include calibrations, identified below as a ‘concession’, to account for skewness in the data; namely, the higher-than-average performance of large, research-intensive institutions. (76) Any calibrations made against the national dataset for MORA calculations will be made transparent via the MoRA online portal. (77) ERA collates national data by Field of Research code (FoR) for: (78) No benchmark data is presently available for research supervision. (79) The national benchmark for each 4-digit FoR code will be calculated as follows: (80) Every three years, academic staff will have the opportunity to create or adjust their FoR profile using the following process: (81) HERDC data includes External Research Income. Collection of this data will be as follows: (82) As part of the annual MORA process, Research Services will invite academic staff to update their publication record in VU Elements. Only publications recorded in VU Elements that satisfy all data capture requirements will be eligible for inclusion. (83) Creative Works as Research and Commissioned Research Reports, both Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs), will form part of the research publications data collection process but will be subject to Committee review and evaluation as outlined in (59)-(64) and (65)-(69) respectively. (84) Data associated with research student completions in any given calendar year will be recorded by the Graduate Research School (GRS) at the point of conferral by Council. (85) New staff will have a MORA calculated on the basis of research performed during the reference period, regardless of employing institution. (86) New staff who are prohibited from transferring funding or students to Victoria University may apply to Research Services to have these research indicators formally recognised in the MORA calculation. Only authenticated research funding and research student completions for the relevant period will be recognised. (87) Where a researcher believes an incorrect calculation of their MORA has occurred in the release of preliminary scores, they may seek a recalculation. The process is as follows: (88) The provisions in this Part apply only to the preliminary calculation of MORA in any calculation year. Appeals will not be accepted post finalisation of MORA scores. (89) Where a change is made to: (90) Measuring Individual Research Activity – Creative Works as Research Guideline (91) Measuring Individual Research Activity - Predatory & Vanity Publishers Guideline (92) The following resources are available via Quick links on the MoRA online portal ‘Welcome’ page: (93) MORA online application user guides are available for Researchers and Managers via a dedicated Sharepoint site: (94) Research Academic Career Structure – Research Only Staff Performance Expectations FrameworkMeasuring Individual Research Activity Procedure
Section 1 - Summary
Section 2 - HESF/ASQA/ESOS Alignment
Section 3 - Scope
Section 4 - Definitions
Section 5 - Policy/Regulation
Section 6 - Procedures
Part A - Summary of Roles and Responsibilities
Releases MORA results to the University via the MoRA online portal.
Considers requests for recalculation of MORA scores.
Initiates VU Research strategic and accreditation FoR profile development and review.
Ensures all information already stored in prescribed systems and processes is up-to-date and accurate.
Provides evidence to support requests for MORA recalculations, where required.
Part B - The MORA Calculation
Process Milestones and Systems
MORA Calculation Method
(refer (34)-(37) below)
(refer (43)-(45) below)
(Traditional outputs) =
(Non-traditional outputs) =
(refer (46)-(69) below)
Note: ‘Overtime’ refers to the number of months post the timely completion date a thesis is submitted – see (51)c below
(refer (71)-(74) below)
(refer (38)-(40) below)
(refer (41) below for strategic weightings)Reference Period
Individual Benchmarks
Table 1: Performance Ratio per Academic Level
Work Years by FTE
Indicators and Weightings
University strategic weightings
Research Income
Research Publications
Where a researcher is responsible for multiple book chapters within a single book, a maximum of 3 units only may be accrued.Traditional Research Outputs
Quality Weightings and Multipliers for Research Publications
Bonuses for Traditional Research Publications
Non-Traditional Research Outputs
Multipliers for Creative Works as Research Outputs
Research Student Completions
For example:
[supervisory load: 0.6] x [Doctorate: 2 units] x [points pro-rata’d: 5/12] = 0.5 points.
[supervisory load: 0.4] x [Masters: 1 unit] x [points pro-rata’d: 3/6] = 0.2 points.Part C - Determining Research Performance Benchmarks for the Field of Research (FoR)
National Benchmarks for Output and Income
Note: the six-year denominator in this calculation is the ERA reference period for publications.
Note: the three-year denominator in this calculation is the ERA reference period for research income.Part D - Individual Academic Field of Research (FoR) Profiles
Part E - Collecting Data
HERDC Report Research Income Data
Research Publications Data
Research Student Completions Data
Part F - New Staff
(62) New staff will be required to update all their publication details in VU Elements. The following rules apply to staff new to VU:
Part G - Raising an Issue with a Preliminary MORA Calculation
Part H - Changes to Collection Method and/or Values and Implication for MORA Calculation
Section 7 - Supporting Documents and Information
MORA Supporting Documents:
MORA Supporting other University Processes: