View Document

Research Publication Policy

This is the current version of this document. To view historic versions, click the link in the document's navigation bar.

Section 1 - Background Information

(1) As a research University, and in order to receive Government funding for its research activities, ACU is required to report annually on its research publications and income. This information is also reported to the Government as part of its institutional assessment of the quality of research being undertaken in universities. Information on research activity is collected and maintained on the University’s research information system and information about ACU research publications is made publicly available through the University’s institutional repository (ACU Research Bank). Academic staff members report their research activity information to the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) (ODVCRE) and these data are verified, maintained and monitored for compliance with the 2015 Higher Education Research Data Collection specifications and the ERA 2023 Submission Guidelines.

(2) The University recognises that all academic staff, as well as faculties and discipline areas, have a responsibility to ensure that the research publication and other outputs meet appropriate definitional and quality standards, and support the University’s strategic directions. It is also necessary to comply with policy changes announced by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). It is the responsibility of researchers to adhere to this policy as well as the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2018.

(3) Research publications move through a number of statuses throughout the publication process. They are prepared for publication, submitted for publication, in-press, etc. This Policy identifies the point at which a publication can be considered by the University to be published and in its final state for the purposes of recording the research output.

(4) Research publications, in the context of this Policy, refer to traditional and non-traditional publications.

Definitions

Term Definition
Accepted Manuscript  Is the version of an article that has been accepted for publication and which may include any author-incorporated changes suggested through peer review, and editor-author communications.
Contested Research Publication Is a publication about which there is disagreement as to whether or not it meets the definition of research.
ERA Excellence in Research for Australia.
Executive Author  Is the senior author of the research output.
Format Neutral Research publications may be produced in any appropriate format, such as print, online, or in digital form on separate media such as a CD. Format neutral research publications require quality control (such as peer review or in-house quality control) and enhancement through processes such as assessment or review, editing, copy-editing, design, and conversion of the work to an appropriate format.
HERDC The 2015 Higher Education Research Data Colletion Specifications.
Research
Is defined in accordance with the Government expectations as contained in the HERDC specifications. The HERDC definition of research and experimental development (R&D)  is consistent with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) definition of research and experimental development set out in the 2015 Frascati Manual 2015.  R&D is defined as ‘creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humankind, culture and society, and to devise new applications of available knowledge.
For an activity to be R&D activity, it must jointly satisfy all five of the below core criteria.  An R&D activity must be:
  1. novel: aimed at new findings;
  2. creative: based on original, not obvious, concepts and hypotheses;
  3. uncertain: uncertain about the final outcome(s);
  4. systematic: planned and budgeted;
  5. transferable and/or reproducible: lead to results that could be possibly reproduced.
The above definition encompasses pure and oriented basic research, applied research and experimental development, which are defined in the 2015 Frascati Manual as follows:
Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view. There are two types of basic research:
  • Pure basic research is carried out for the advancement of knowledge, without seeking economic or social benefits or making an active effort to apply the results to practical problems or to transfer the results to sectors responsible for their application.
  • Oriented basic research is carried out with the expectation that it will produce a broad base of knowledge likely to form the basis of the solution to recognised or expected current or future problems or possibilities.
Applied research is original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge.  It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific, practical aim or objective (including a client-driven purpose).
Experimental development is systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience and producing additional knowledge, which is directed to producing new products or processes or to improving existing products or processes.
Examples of activities that  meet the definition of R&D include:
  1. professional, technical, administrative or clerical support staff directly engaged in activities essential to the conduct of R&D;
  2. the activities of higher degree by research (HDR) students enrolled at the HEP;
  3. the development of HDR training and courses;
  4. the supervision of HDR students enrolled at the HEP;,
  5. R&D into applications software, new programming languages and new operating systems;prototype development and testing;
  6. construction and operation of a pilot plant where the primary objective is to make further improvements;
  7. trial production where there is full scale testing and subsequent further design and engineering;
  8. phases I to III of clinical trials; and
  9. non-traditional research creative arts including original creative works, live performance of creative works, recorded or rendered works, and curated exhibitions or events.
Examples of activities that do not meet the definition of R&D include:
  1. scientific and technical information services;
  2. general purpose or routine data collection;
  3. standardisation and routine testing;
  4. feasibility studies (except into R&D projects);
  5. specialised routine medical care;
  6. literature reviews that are predominantly a summary of the current knowledge and findings of a particular R&D field or topic and do not include any critical assessment or report any new findings or original experimental work;.
  7. commercial, legal and administrative aspects of patenting, plant breeders’ rights, copyright, material transfer agreements or intellectual property licensing, option and assignment activities and royalties;
  8. routine computer programming, systems work or software maintenance;
  9. stages of product development that do not meet the five R&D criteria above;
  10. pre-production development;
  11. market research;
  12. construction of fully-tested prototypes for marketing purposes;
  13. after sales service and troubleshooting;
  14. industrial engineering and design for production purposes;
  15. creative activities that do not meet the five core R&D criteria above;
  16. R&D financing and support services;
  17. consultancies or framework analysis activities that are designed to analyse or evaluate processes at external operators; and
  18. teaching services based on existing knowledge which do not constitute entirely new advancements in knowledge.
Research Publication the definition is consistent with the HERDC definition being as follows: “Research publications are books, book chapters, journal articles and/or conference publications which comply with the definition of research and are characterised by:
 
  1. substantial scholarly activity, as evidenced by discussion of the relevant literature, an awareness of the history and antecedents of work described, and provided in a format which allows a reader to trace sources of the work, including through citations and footnotes;
  2. originality including interpretative originality (i.e. not just a compilation of existing works);
  3. veracity/validity through a peer review process or the quality control processes of a commercial publisher;
  4. increasing the stock of knowledge; and
  5. being in a form that enables the dissemination of knowledge.”(pp.8-9)
The HERDC Specifications also note “Where a literature review is predominantly a summary of the current knowledge and findings of a particular research field or topic, and as such, does not include any critical assessment or report any new findings or original experimental work, then this publication type is unlikely to comply with the definition of research (section 1.3.10).” (p.7).

Research publication material also includes non-traditional outputs as specified from time to time by the government.
TEQSA Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA)
University Only Research Collection the University Only Research Collection collects research publications that fall outside the HERDC Specifications but are recognised through the Academic Workload Policy, as contributions to research and scholarship.
Top of Page

Section 2 - Policy Purpose

(5) This Policy forms part of the University’s governance framework for the management of research outputs. It outlines responsibilities with respect to approvals and roles, and informs procedures and guidelines related to the recording and management of the University’s research outputs. The policy is to ensure that the University meets its reporting obligations to the Federal Government including the dissemination of government-funded research information.

Top of Page

Section 3 - Policy Statement

(6) The Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) (ODVCRE) is responsible for ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the University’s research data for the purposes of providing internal and external jurisdictional reports.

(7) Faculties and discipline areas have a responsibility to ensure that the research publication outputs meet appropriate definitional and quality standards. The ODVCRE is responsible for compiling ACU’s publications information and for establishing information collection procedures..

(8) The version of record in the ODVCRE research management system is the version as published in its final format. This format neutral version serves as the definitive version and includes any changes made to an accepted manuscript by pre-publication copy editing, typesetting and proof reading.

Top of Page

Section 4 - Application of Policy

Reporting Research Outputs

(9) The University is obliged to record and report the research publications of its staff and students to comply with the TEQSA requirements around research standards.  Research outputs must be stored in an institutionally supported repository in digital form. ACU’s institutional repository (ACU Research Bank) is managed by the Library which also creates metadata records, scans research publications and uploads digital files to the repository so that they can be assessed by external reviewers.

(10) For the purposes of reporting the University's publication outputs, the version to be used is defined by this Policy

Recording Research Outputs

(11) Research publication outputs are recorded in the ACU research information system and reported to the Government. Outputs which do not meet the HERDC and/or ERA specifications are recorded as university-only publications and are not reported to the Government.

(12) In order to ensure the University has a complete record of research publication outputs, Academic Staff and honorary appointment holders are expected to provide information about their research publications consistent with the Appointment of Staff Policy. Research students with published research are also required to report this information to the University as part of its annual publications data collection.

(13) Publication outputs having a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) are not necessarily considered to be in their final format. The inclusion of these publications in the final ODVCRE approved HERDC return or ERA submission is dependent on meeting all other requirements of these collections.

(14) Publication outputs which appear only on the web are considered to be a final version subject to meeting other reporting requirements. The procedure for calculating page numbers and volume is detailed in the procedures.

(15) Consistent with the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI tools - Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used, and which tool was used. (Note: this does not include basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, etc.). Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Attribution to Australian Catholic University

(16) In order that Australian Catholic University achievements and investment in research receive appropriate acknowledgement and contribute to all relevant measures of performance, Australian Catholic University must be attributed on all ACU staff research outputs.

(17) Attribution is also required where:

  1. staff hold a joint appointment or honorary position with Australian Catholic University;
  2. resources and/or facilities of Australian Catholic University have been used in the research leading to the output;
  3. the research project expenditure have been managed through Australian Catholic University finance accounts; and
  4. project funding has been made available from external sources which require attribution in resulting publications as part of the funding conditions.

(18) Staff should refer to the appropriate guidelines supplied by the funding body to ensure the correct by-line reference is included on the output. In attributing Australian Catholic University as the institution of affiliation, ‘Australian Catholic University’ must be written out in full in the by-line.

(19) Where authors are approved to list other affiliations (for example, institute, centre, department or school) these may be listed after the ‘Australian Catholic University’ attribution. Where multiple affiliations are listed ‘Australian Catholic University’ must always be listed first, wherever possible.

(20) Where an executive author is based at another institution, it is the responsibility of the Australian Catholic University author(s) to ensure that Australian Catholic University is appropriately attributed as described above.

Publishing Conflict of Interest

(21) Publications produced by a publisher that is owned by a member of staff, their family or relatives would not normally be considered eligible for the research collections as there is a potential for an independent assessor to reasonably conclude that there is a conflict of interest.

Top of Page

Section 5 - Further Assistance

(22) Any staff member who requires assistance in understanding this Policy should contact their Associate Dean, Research in the first instance,

Top of Page

Section 6 - Review

(23) Unless otherwise indicated, this Policy will still apply beyond the review date.

Top of Page

Section 7 - Associated Information

(24) For related legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines and any supporting resources please refer to the Associated Information tab.