Australian Research Council Grants: Religious Studies and Theology

Mr Fletcher asked the Minister representing the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, in writing, on 9 October 2012:

(1) Can the Minister indicate what proportion of Australian research book publications are in the fields of religious studies and theology.

(2) Since 1 July 2002, what proportion of grants awarded by the Australian Research Council have been made in the fields of religious studies and theology.

(3) Is there any significant disparity between these two proportions; if so, why.

 

Mr Combet: The answer to the honourable members question is as follows:

(1) 2.69% of research book publications submitted by universities for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluations in 2010 were apportioned to the ABS field of research code 2204 (Religion and Religious Studies).

(2) Since 2002:

a. 0.61 per cent of projects funded by the Australian Research Council have included research in Religion and Religious Studies..

b. Religion and Religious studies has been the primary focus of 0.24 per cent of research projects funded by the Australian Research Council.

(3) Yes. The disparity exists because the proportion of research book publications in a field of research is not an accurate reflection of the proportion of research activity in that field of research.

Books are only one of several research output types commonly produced by the higher education research sector and the ratio of books to other output types varies substantially between fields of research.

For example, 9% of research outputs apportioned to the field of Religion and Religious Studies were books in ERA 2010, whereas only 1% of the total research outputs submitted across all ABS field of research codes were books.

Of the total research outputs submitted across all ABS field of research codes, 0.45% were apportioned to the ABS field of research code 2204 (Religion and Religious Studies), as the table below illustrates.

The proportion of research outputs in religion and religious studies in ERA 2010

Research output types

No. of research outputs by ABS Field of Research:

% apportioned to Religion and Religious Studies

Religion and Religious Studies (code 2204)

All ABS Field of Research codes

Book

132

4,912

2.69%

Book Chapter

553

34,755

1.59%

Journal Article

742

206,816

0.36%

Conf. Publication

58

73,741

0.08%

Non-traditional Output

30

12,869

0.23%

All output types

1,515

333,093

0.45%

 

Note: The ERA 2010 Reference Period for Research Outputs was 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008.

Source: ERA 2010 National Report, pages 200 and 212.