1. Professor Phyllis Tharenou Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
ROPE/Track Record Read Instructions to Applicants and Funding Guidelines
Professor Phyllis Tharenou
Executive Dean
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
9 October 2012

2. Strategies to Improve Success
1. Write to the % weight given for each selection criterion:
Write to meaning of each selection criterion & its parts:
FF candidate (eg ROPE) 40%
Project quality (components) 35%
Strategic alignment 15%
Collaboration/outreach 10%
2. Get assessed by experts in your field
Select correct Field of Research codes (6- & 4-digit), keywords, and write 100 word summary to arrive at assessors who are experts on your proposal’s field.

3. Criterion 1: Future Fellowship Candidate 40%
Research opportunity and performance evidence (ROPE)
Capacity and leadership to undertake proposed research (Q4 of ROPE)
Record of high quality research outputs appropriate to the discipline/s (Q2, Q3, Q5)
Evidence of national &/or international research standing (Q3, Q4)
Contribution to national and/or international public policy debates and initiatives (need to put somewhere)

4. ROPE
Q1. Details on career and research opportunities in last 5 years (to help ECRs, women) (2 pps)
Q2. Recent significant publications in last 5 years
Q3. Ten career-best publications (no time limit)
Q4. Most significant contributions to Proposal’s research field (3 pps)
Q5. Evidence of capacity to conduct high quality, innovative research and national and/or international research standing (3 pps)
Q6. Evidence of capacity to build collaborations across industry and/or research institutions and/or with other disciplines (1 page) (4th selection criterion) )

5. Qs 2 & 3: Pubs Last 5 years & Best 10 Pubs
For each pub, give Quality, from published measures
Web of Science Ranks of Impact Factors, IFs (can use Scopus)
Journal ranks if available (eg WoS IF ranks, accepted published rankings of journals in your field)
No. citations (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar)
Benchmarking eg average cites per paper in your discipline
Whether pub came from an ARC grant where you were a C1/P1
typed on same line as the publication.
Example
Gere, R How to get a good ROPE score. Journal of Applied Assessment, 15, 1-2. WoS Rank of Impact Factor (Management) 10/77; 5-year IF 3.6; Cites: Scopus 32, WoS 12, Googlescholar 65; WoS average cites per paper worldwide (Mgt) = 3.

6. Benchmarking by Cites/Paper
Example: Web of Science ISI:
Publish no. of citations per paper for your discipline EG:
“World” average from WoS is 2 cites/paper for subject category of Management and 3 for Psychology,
Then compare to your no. of cites/paper from WoS ISI
Web of Science (not include worldwide average)
Other databases calculate equivalent of impact factor ranks eg
Scopus: scimagojr.com (does equivalent of impact factors)
Rankings published by reputable source eg your professional association (eg on web) , major journal in your field

7. Other Publications than Journal Articles
Book or Book Chapter
Give any published reviews eg in a journal or magazine
Gere, R Review of “Book Title”, Personnel Psychology, 5, 1-2.
Give citations eg Scopus, Web of Science, Googlescholar
State quality of book publisher. EG
Top book publishers in Social, Behav’ral and Economic Sciences:
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Academic Press, Chicago University Press, Columbia University Press, Cornell University Press, Harvard University Press, MIT Press, Princeton University Press, Routledge, Sage
Other publishers at next level down, still very good

8. Benchmarking Citations for Books
Academic Discipline
No. of ISI citations per book
No. of Googlescholar citations per book
Business 66
200
Computer Scientist
538
2599
Education
132
797
Political Scientist 62
215
Media studies
110
Linguist 78
518
From Harzing, A. W. ( ). The publish or perish book. Melbourne: Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd.
Some measures also corrected for years of opportunity or since PhD.

9. Q3: Avoid for 10 Career “Best” Publications
Best means as recognized by peers on standard measures:
Don’t select if you can (may insert later in ROPE) :
Textbooks
Working papers
Reports, Government publications
Conference presentations or papers or published abstracts
Avoid if you can (can still go in Pubs for Last 5 Years)
Books in lesser or unknown presses
Book chapters unless can show high quality objectively
Chapters in own edited book
Lowly ranked journals by Impact Factor or other ranking
Australian journals of low rank
Pubs’ “in press”/“forthcoming” unless in an outstanding outlet

10. Q3: Best 10 Publications
30 WORDs on impact or significance of each publication:
The substantive argument
Why content of this publication is recognized by other scholars as having advanced knowledge in the research field
AND
Objective, publicly available evidence justifying quality eg
No. of citations for this pub (Scopus, WoS, googlescholar)
Benchmarking eg no. of cites for this pub. vs average for your field
Impact factor rank for journal, other published journal ranks
typed straight on at the end of publication to not use the 30 words
Reference for published book review (eg Gere, 2010, JAP, 5, 1-2)
Awards, prizes (give authors in order on publication, year awarded, name of prize, organization that awarded it)

11. Q4: Most Significant Contribution to Proposal’s Field
Link your specific past research and achievements to the specific field and topic of this proposal:
(a) To show your expertise, from your past performance/outputs, to: (a) carry it out and (b) advance this field
(b) At the same time, give your level of past performance in this field
Give specific, publicly obtainable measures of quality in this field of your performance to show you have advanced knowledge, have done it well, and thus can do it again
Start with the specific achievements you are most well known for and for which you can give specific objective evidence, especially where you show top performance

12. Q5: Capacity to Conduct High Quality, Innovative Research and National &/Or International Research Standing
(a) Research outputs other than publications eg
Consultancies, patents and policy advice, competitive grants & other research support, major exhibitions, compositions or performances, other professional activities, etc.
(b) Give quality/impact of all your research outputs relative to opportunity and discipline expectations on diverse evaluations eg
Total citations, h-index (WoS, Scopus, Googlescholar), other index
Benchmarking against your discipline eg h-index, no. of cites
Evaluation of quality eg
Quality of the conference, Prestige of book publisher,
Published reviews of books or book chapters,
Other public evidence of recognition eg Used by policy makers to change public policy and make new laws; sales; no. of editions etc.

13. (Q5. Cont’d)
Invitations, Honours & awards/prizes, other esteem measures eg
Keynote addresses esp. at international conferences
Evidence for quality of conference presentations (eg high rejection rate, top international conference, prize/award)
Editorial roles & reviewer (also ranks of those journals)
Fellowships in learned societies or elected to prestigious bodies
External competitive grants
International research collaborations
No. of PhD completions & where employed now
Other measures eg other invitations, prizes/awards

14. Benchmarking
Find publicly available evaluations of your field that list academics in your field or averages for your field on evaluations (eg no. of pubs, cites), often published in journals
How do you compare? Are you acknowledged?
Calculate your h- or other index from Publish or Perish (Googlescholar) & compare to averages from Harzing ( )
Harzing, A. W. ( ). The publish or perish book. Melbourne: Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd. ttp://

15. Q6: Capacity to build collaborations across industry, research institutions, other disciplines
Describe various industry, local, state, and/or federal government and/or research institution partnerships been involved with to build new research directions and collaborations. Outline role in helping form these.
Outline multi-disciplinary projects been actively involved with and describe role in setting up such initiatives.

16. The End

17. ROPE: Q1 – to Help ECRs/women
Q1. Career & research opportunities in last 5 years–500 words:
No. of years graduated with highest educ. qualification
Research opportunities and component in employment situation (eg ECR); Any part-time or un-employment?
Role: Research-only, teaching & research, teaching-only, teaching & administration, research & administration, or administration-only, and other roles—% of time in the roles
Career interruptions for childbirth, carer’s responsibility, misadventure, or debilitating illness
Research mentoring and facilities available to you
Any other aspects of career or research opportunities relevant to assessment and not detailed elsewhere eg slowed down your research

18. Career & opportunities for research in last 5 years
Five questions
Research opportunities within your employment conditions
e.g. teaching or administration load, part-time status, non-research employment or unemployment
To help assessors of ECRs and women, esp. in early career, to assess track record taking into account research opportunity and career interruptions
Career interruptions for childbirth, carer’s responsibility, misadventure, or debilitating illness;
To explain a gap in your track record; Give an end point;
Do not list ongoing conditions eg heavy teaching load or admin.
Any other circumstances that may have affected the time you have had to conduct and publish research relevant to assessment

19. What Harms Your ROPE Score?
Last 5 Years’ Pubs: Too few publications, none or few recently
LAST 5 YEARS’ PUBLICATIONS AND BEST 10 PUBS
Textbooks & working papers; conference presentations or abstracts; seminars/workshops; urls; reports, government publications etc.
Too few journal articles & no scholarly books;
No objective evidence given for quality of publications
Omitted or wrong information for any publication
Not given authors’ names in order appear on publication or ARC grant
Best 10 Pubs
Giving mostly journals or books of low rank or reputation or local
Giving Conference proceedings or book chapters, unless CPs or BCs are the proven norm for publishing top work in your field

20. How to Make Answers in RMS Readable
Despite your typing them (eg carriage returns), no white space or indents emerge, so answers to qs 1, 4 and 5 are unreadable
Split answer to each of Qs 1, 4 & 5 into typed capitalised headings of (A), (B), (C), (D) etc with named themes/categories, and each as a CAPITALISED heading
Eg (A) INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION:
Give specific information for answers to Qs 4 and 5, not broad or general statements eg
Always give years for everything mentioned
Give names of associations eg for prizes, conferences
Give specific information for publications or grants eg $, all authors in order appear on publication, titles, year
For “forthcoming” books, give full information
Be brief. Do not write a story

21. h-Index Values for Social Work Academics
For tenure-track faculty at top 10 institutions in U.S.
Mean Mdn Conf Interval
Assistant prof , 4.62
Associate prof , 9.32
Full professor , 17.45
For editorial board members
Assistant prof , 5.24
Associate prof , 8.88
Full professor , 15.54
Lacasse, J.R., Hodge, D.R., & Bean, K.F.(2011). Evaluating the productivity of social work scholars using the h-Index. Research on Social Work Practice, 21(5),