Q. Why does the Library collect research publications?

The Library collects publications for the purposes of internal reporting and the University’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) submission, which is prepared by the University's Research Services Office (not the library).

Publication information is not only for ERA purposes (three or five years). Academics need their publications to be made available in the Research Profiles and Repository for the following reasons:

• Researchers want to have a profile which accurately reflects their publication activity and history.
• If the researcher is applying for a promotion or a grant, they need to download the Research Activity Statement from their Portal page, which lists the publications that are ERA eligible.
• When the researcher is undertaking their annual workload assessment. Most Schools have criteria around how many ERA-eligible publications they have authored. They need to produce accurate reports of their publication activity and associated metrics for internal and external funding opportunities.

Researchers new to WSU often have a CV full of publications which are not affiliated to WSU, but will become ERA eligible if they are here on the next census date. Therefore, the University wants the details of these publications, and the researcher wants these publications published on their internal and external profiles.