title: The New Zealand performance based research fund and its impact on publication activity in economics

authors: Tressler, John

subjects: research measurement

abstract: New Zealand’s academic research assessment scheme, the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), was launched in 2002 with the stated objective of increasing research quality in the nation’s universities. Evaluation rounds were conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2012. In this paper, we employ 22 different journal weighting schemes to generate output estimates of refereed journal paper and page production over three six year periods (1994-1999; 2000-2005 and 2006-2011). These time periods reflect a pre-PBRF environment, a mixed assessment period, and a pure PBRF research environment, respectively. Our findings indicate that, on average, research productivity, defined in either paper or page terms, has increased since the introduction of the PBRF. However, this outcome is due to a major increase in the quantity of papers and pages produced per capita that has more than off-set a decline in the quality of published outputs since the introduction of the PBRF. In other words, our findings suggest that the PBRF has failed to achieve its stated goal of increasing average research quality, but it has resulted in substantial gains in productivity achieved via large increases in the quantity of refereed journal articles.

text: The New Zealand performance based research fund and its impact on publication activity in economics New Zealand’s academic research assessment scheme, the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), was launched in 2002 with the stated objective of increasing research quality in the nation’s universities. Evaluation rounds were conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2012. In this paper, we employ 22 different journal weighting schemes to generate output estimates of refereed journal paper and page production over three six year periods (1994-1999; 2000-2005 and 2006-2011). These time periods reflect a pre-PBRF environment, a mixed assessment period, and a pure PBRF research environment, respectively. Our findings indicate that, on average, research productivity, defined in either paper or page terms, has increased since the introduction of the PBRF. However, this outcome is due to a major increase in the quantity of papers and pages produced per capita that has more than off-set a decline in the quality of published outputs since the introduction of the PBRF. In other words, our findings suggest that the PBRF has failed to achieve its stated goal of increasing average research quality, but it has resulted in substantial gains in productivity achieved via large increases in the quantity of refereed journal articles.

year: 2013-02

title: Completely integrable relativistic Hamiltonian systems and separation of variables in Hermitian hyperbolic spaces

authors: Boyer, C.P.

subjects: Mathematics

abstract: The Hamilton–Jacobi and Laplace–Beltrami equations on the Hermitian hyperbolic space HH(2) are shown to allow the separation of variables in precisely 12 classes of coordinate systems. The isometry group of this two-complex-dimensional Riemannian space, SU(2,1), has four mutually nonconjugate maximal abelian subgroups. These subgroups are used to construct the separable coordinates explicitly. All of these subgroups are two-dimensional, and this leads to the fact that in each separable coordinate system two of the four variables are ignorable ones. The symmetry reduction of the free HH(2) Hamiltonian by a maximal abelian subgroup of SU(2,1) reduces this Hamiltonian to one defined on an O(2,1) hyperboloid and involving a nontrivial singular potential. Separation of variables on HH(2) and more generally on HH(n) thus provides a new method of generating nontrivial completely integrable relativistic Hamiltonian systems.

text: Completely integrable relativistic Hamiltonian systems and separation of variables in Hermitian hyperbolic spaces The Hamilton–Jacobi and Laplace–Beltrami equations on the Hermitian hyperbolic space HH(2) are shown to allow the separation of variables in precisely 12 classes of coordinate systems. The isometry group of this two-complex-dimensional Riemannian space, SU(2,1), has four mutually nonconjugate maximal abelian subgroups. These subgroups are used to construct the separable coordinates explicitly. All of these subgroups are two-dimensional, and this leads to the fact that in each separable coordinate system two of the four variables are ignorable ones. The symmetry reduction of the free HH(2) Hamiltonian by a maximal abelian subgroup of SU(2,1) reduces this Hamiltonian to one defined on an O(2,1) hyperboloid and involving a nontrivial singular potential. Separation of variables on HH(2) and more generally on HH(n) thus provides a new method of generating nontrivial completely integrable relativistic Hamiltonian systems.

year: 1983-08

title: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places

authors: Stanley, Paul

subjects: Maori

abstract: In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

text: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

year: 2003