Research culture and New Zealand’s performance-based research fund: some insights from bibliographic compilations of research outputs

Year-on-year trends in research outputs show increases in research activity as the date of the research assessment exercise—in New Zealand the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF)—looms. Moreover, changes with time in the number and types of conference presentation indicate that the vehicle of publication is also being influenced by the PBRF. Within New Zealand business schools, relating the published journal articles to the Australian Business Deans Council rankings list shows a trend towards more publications of lower rank, raising doubts about whether the rhetoric about the PBRF raising the quality of research is really justified. This ‘drive’ towards increasing numbers of research outputs is also fostered by an increasing trend towards co-authorship in publishing across all disciplines.