# Research/Australia

In order for higher education providers in Australia to receive federal government funding for research they must report on research activity defined as follows.

## Research

For the purposes of these specifications, research comprises:
* creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications
* any activity classified as research which is characterised by originality; it should have investigation as a primary objective and should have the potential to produce results that are sufficiently general for humanity's stock of knowledge (theoretical and/or practical) to be recognisably increased. Most higher education research work would qualify as research
* pure basic research, strategic basic research, applied research and experimental development.
Activities that support research and meet this definition of research include:
* provision of professional, technical, administrative or clerical support and/or assistance to staff directly engaged in research
* management of staff who are either directly engaged in research or are providing professional, technical or clerical support or assistance to those staff
* activities of students undertaking postgraduate research courses
* development of postgraduate research courses
* supervision of students undertaking postgraduate research courses.
Activities that do not support research must be excluded, such as:
* preparation for teaching
* scientific and technical information services
* general purpose or routine data collection
* standardisation and routine testing
* feasibility studies (except into research and experimental development projects)
* specialised routine medical care
* commercial, legal and administrative aspects of patenting, copyright or licensing activities
* routine computer programming, systems work or software maintenance (research and experimental development into applications software, new programming languages and new operating systems would normally meet the definition of research).

## Publication categories

There are four publication categories counted in the 2009 HERDC Research Publications Return:
* Books
* Book Chapters
* Journal Articles
* Conference Publications.
Each category has a set of defined criteria which must be met for a research publication to be included. The 2009 HERDC Research Publications Return must report only research publications which are books, book chapters, journal articles and/or conference publications which meet the definition of research, are within the specifications of the reference year and are characterised by:
* substantial scholarly activity, as evidenced by discussion of the relevant literature, an awareness of the history and antecedents of work described, and provided in a format which allows a reader to trace sources of the work, including through citations and footnotes
* originality (i.e. not a compilation of existing works)
* veracity/validity through a peer validation process or by satisfying the commercial publisher processes
* increasing the stock of knowledge
* being in a form that enables dissemination of knowledge.