The ERA and Regional Studies

In many different countries, academics are now formally assessed according to some kind of research quality assessment. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Research Assessment Exercise was most recently used for this purpose - with the new Research Excellence Framework now looming. This exercise, and others like it (such as the PBRF in New Zealand and the RAE in Hong Kong), take an approach to measuring research outputs that is increasingly quantitative - and often controversial.

In Australia, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative - run by the Australian Research Council - is currently in the process of assessing the outputs of academics. A development here that has prompted much debate has been the ranking of journals according to a tiered scale: A*, A, B and C (click here for definitions). Before we look at a more detailed break-down of the figures, however, some more information:

• The total number of journals ranked, across all subject areas, was over 20,000 - in fact, the spreadsheet has 20,712 rows of data.
  
• There were 74 ranked journals in Human Geography, and 130 in Urban and Regional Planning - info here provided by John Lamp at Deakin University in Geelong.
• Many journals fall under more than one subject area - this applies to Regional Studies.
  
• In Human Geography, only 4 journals were ranked A* (one of which was Regional Studies!).
• In Urban and Regional Planning, 13 journals were ranked A* (Regional Studies is also in this category).
• The area with the most journals is Clinical Sciences (1,365), followed by Law (1,280).
• Some journals are 'not ranked' - this applies to new journals which began in 2008 or later.

Now, finally, a couple of charts showing the distribution of journals in each category for both Human Geography and Urban and Regional Planning (data sourced from the ERA 2010 web pages).

Looking back to 1965...

The date of today's post is 19th February 2010, or, 16,388 days since the founding of the Regional Studies Association. A quick 'back of the envelope' calculation tells me that this makes the Association 44 years, 10 months and 11 days old (and looking in great shape)!

The Regional Studies Association was formally constituted at the inaugural meeting on 9th April 1965 - but, to put things in historical context, what else was happening around that time?

Well, it was a historic year in many ways... January saw the passing of one of Britain's most celebrated Prime Ministers - Winston Churchill. Further afield, NASA's Mariner 4 passed Mars and took the first photos of another planet. Back on earth, the Mont Blanc Tunnel opened, providing a new link between Italy and France. On the very day that the Regional Studies Association was inaugurated, the first baseball game took place in the Houston Astrodome in the US, with Mickey Mantle hitting a home run - the first ever indoors. Other sports events of 1965 include Liverpool winning the FA Cup in England, Felice Gimondi of Italy winning the Tour de France, Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters and UCLA winning the NCAA basketball championship in the US.


A fairly selective mini-history there but it's interesting to look back and see what was happening as the RSA was just beginning. If you're interested in finding out more about the history of the RSA, I suggest you go to James Hopkins' web page at the University of Manchester since his research project is all about the origins of the RSA.

Regional Studies at The Ritz - The RSA Awards 2010

The Regional Studies Association Awards in 2010 will be at The Ritz hotel in London, following last year's Awards at the House of Lords. There are awards for so many categories, it's difficult to keep track - but here's a summary:

• Contribution to the Field
  
• Early Career Award
• Taught Masters
• Best Book
• Best Paper in Regional Studies
• Best Referee for Regional Studies
• Best Paper in Spatial Economic Analysis
• Best Referee for Spatial Economic Analysis

If you want to find out more about the awards - including nominations and how it all works, go to the Awards section of the RSA website.



The awards ceremony isn't until the Autumn, but the nominations must be in by May 30 this year. The awards were presented last year by Sir Peter Hall at the House of Lords. The photo below shows Taught Masters Award winner Pedro do Amaral receiving his certificate from Sir Peter:

The RSA International Conference 2010 - Pécs, Hungary

The RSA International Conference in May 2010 will be in the city of Pécs in southern Hungary. Following last year's conference in Leuven (click here for photos!), this year's venue reflects the Association's wish to engage with new territories - I hear the beer is also very good!

If you're wondering what the best route from the RSA offices to Pécs is, see the google map below (you can zoom and pan as normal). Alternatively, you could fly to Budapest and then travel over land from there...


View Larger Map

Paul Krugman at the AAG

Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, will give the Regional Studies Annual Lecture at the AAG in Washington, DC on April 16, 2010 - at 12:40. His paper is entitled 'The New Economic Geography, Now Middle Aged' and is likely to stimulate much interest and debate, particularly since it follows a whole day of sessions on April 15 in which Ed Glaeser will be speaking on 'Two Centuries of Urban Resurgence and Decline'. Other speakers lined up for this full day session on 'Regional Resilience' include Ann Markusen, Sam Ock Park, Maryann Feldman, Andrew Isserman, Henry Yeung and Susan Christopherson - an impressive list of speakers!

For information on Paul Krugman's latest views, his NY Times blog is the best place to look and if you're interested in the AAG session itself, click on the image below to link directly to the RSA publicity flyer.


Further information: Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008. Born in 1953, he received his PhD from MIT in 1977 and has been at Princeton since 2000.