In the recent Excellence for Research in Australia 2015 submission (ERA), the Australian Research Council (ARC) required a new output type be reported: Research Reports for an External Body.

This category is defined as ‘a written research output commissioned or solicited by an external body such as a government department or private company.’

The ERA 2015 Submission Guidelines (p50) provides more details and examples.

Thank you to those researchers who supplied these reports to their faculty for the ERA 2015 reference period (2008-2013).

To ensure the University is well-prepared for the next ERA submission and to ensure different types of research outputs are recognised and recorded, all Research Reports for an External Body will now be collected by the Library on an ongoing basis (and not just for the ERA initiative).

When preparing a research report for an external body, forward a digital copy (e.g. a PDF file) to the Library’s ResearchOnline team (researchonline@mq.edu.au).

The team will process these outputs and provide them to the Research Office to load into the IRIS database. This will ensure the appropriate recognition of these research outputs, including future ERA reporting.

Important note
Staff are advised to check their publication listing in IRIS by the end of May to ensure all HERDC-eligible outputs from 2014 are in the database. If missing, please forward to the ResearchOnline team by 31 May 2015.