A Non-Traditional Research Output (NTRO) offers a valuable and important contribution to general knowledge and understanding, and to UniSC’s vibrant research culture.
The NTRO Steering Committee
UniSC has established an NTRO Steering Committee to evaluate NTROs in a systematic, timely and ongoing manner.
The NTRO Steering Committee consists of staff members representing a range of schools, primarily those most likely to produce NTROs. Staff from UniSC Library’s Research Bank and the Office of Research's Research Performance Team play an important role on the committee and have assisted in establishing a set of processes that ensure fair and equitable evaluation of NTROs.
The committee will:
UniSC's preferred standard for traditional research outputs is long-form journal articles published in journals rated in Q1 by Scimago, indicating placement in the top quarter within their respective disciplines. Additionally, UniSC values articles with high FWCI scores at the article level, reflecting their impact relative to similar papers over time. This dual approach ensures both immediate recognition through acceptance in prestigious journals and long-term impact through citation analysis.
Similar to quality ratings for standard academic papers, UniSC has established a ranking mechanism from NT1 to NT4 for NTROs. These range from internationally recognised works (NT1) to nationally (NT2), regionally (NT3) or locally impactful contributions (NT4).
While UniSC acknowledges and honours NTROs, staff are urged to also publish via traditional research outlets. Doing so can provide additional evidence of peer review and validation for the NTROs.
On this page:
Research entails systematic work to discover new knowledge or innovative application of existing knowledge to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions, and understandings. It is a creative and methodical process aimed at advancing the stock of knowledge and/or devising novel practical applications.
The committee will recognise NTROs where the output meets the following criteria:
The NTRO that is submitted for assessment must be submitted to the UniSC Research Bank, along with a research statement and accompanying evidence. The activity must conform to one of the following NTRO categories:
This resource was created by
Tricia King, Leah Barclay, Briony Luttrell and Hannah Banks.
The Committee will judge and reach consensus about submissions using these criteria:
The NTRO Steering Committee meets four times per year. Please see MyUniSC for details about NTRO Submission Dates and Drop In Session Dates.
The NTRO Steering Committee will classify submissions according to the following rankings:
NT1 | Major - works of significant scale and major international standing |
NT2 | Standard - works of national standard |
NT3 | Works of national standing, but small in scale, and regional works |
NT4 | Works of local significance |
NR | Works that are not research - this may apply to teaching-related material or other content not meeting the ERA definition of research |
Some activities, works and/or research statements will be returned to researchers for additional evidence or clarification and classified initially as Returns. This categorisation covers work that would benefit from re-evaluation by the researcher following peer feedback.
Assessment of NTROs is, therefore, more likely to align with those determinations of quality associated with traditional research outputs where only a small percentage of outputs are determined at a Q1 level.
Researchers are responsible for:
In order for an NTRO to be ERA eligible, it is important to provide supporting documentation as per the following checklist:
After the submission is uploaded to UniSC Research Bank, it will be reviewed by the NTRO Steering Committee to ensure all requirements have been met and that the output is eligible for ERA review. The researcher may be asked to make changes or provide further documentation or evidence.
If you have any questions or practical uploading questions, please contact the UniSC Library Research Bank team in the first instance.
If you have any questions about school areas of research focus, contact the chair of your school’s research committee or your deputy Head of School (Research).