Two different methods of assessing research quality, namely a journal focus or an
article focus, can yield totally different outcomes. Both journal quality and article
quality can be based on the number of citations or on a ranking by academic experts.
For Australian academics (and probably others too), citations is becoming a more
important issue, with the Australian Research Council (ARC) moving away from
relying on journal rankings. This could entail placing greater reliance on the citations
of published articles, similar to the UK’s proposed Research Excellence Framework
(REF) (Rosenstreich and Wooliscroft, 2009). The current Australian Research Council
(ARC) (2011) guidelines place more emphasis on the number and quality of citations of
a research article rather than a journal ranking predetermined by a panel of academic
experts (see Moosa, 2011, pp. 809-10).