Research and Scholarship Policy

PURPOSE

This policy outlines Leaders Institute’s (LI) commitment to ensuring academic staff are effective, relevant, and current in their disciplines and in the field of higher education learning and teaching. It also explains the responsibilities of research students and their supervisors. LI adheres to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) definitions of research and scholarship.

All research undertaken at LI complies with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

SCOPE

All academic staff and research students

PRINCIPLES

LI’s priorities are informed by the LI Strategic Plan and the LI Research and Scholarship Plan. LI ensures that:

• all LI permanent and sessional academic staff engage in scholarship to maintain currency in their disciplines, as well as higher education learning and teaching in those disciplines;
• relevant internal professional development workshops are provided for all academic staff;
• appropriate resourcing is allocated to research and scholarship;
• academic staff are encouraged to apply for competitive external research grants;
• all research and scholarship activities and impact are systematically collected, collated, and analysed. This data reported to Academic Board annually, including how knowledge has been disseminated outside academic;
• all human research proposals are submitted to Research and Scholarship Committee and requires external approval by an authorised body;
• all research raw data is stored securely by LI for at least five (5) years;
• research adheres to the Code of Conduct Policy and First Nations Peoples Education Policy;
• Research and Scholarship Committee carries out its responsibilities as listed in the Academic Board Terms of Reference Policy.

DEFINITIONS

Research: systematic and rigorous investigation aimed at the discovery of previously unknown phenomena, the development of explanatory theory and its application to new situations or problems, and the construction of original works of significant intellectual merit.

Scholarship: analysis and interpretation of existing knowledge aimed at improving, through publications, teaching or by other means of communication, the depth of human understanding.

Human research: research about people, including surveys, interviews, observations, testing, accessing personal data or collecting human tissue.

Scholarship Engagement

Scholarship engagement of LI permanent and sessional academic staff is directly related to their discipline expertise, including:

• peer reviewed research publications and conference presentations;
• contributing to course developments and reviews;
• synthesising and communicating innovations in discipline knowledge, practice, or teaching (e.g. presentations, podcasts, feature articles);
• contributions to communities of practice (e.g. development of resources, codes, or standards; engagement in academic societies; editorial roles; peer review or moderation);
• undertaking a Higher Degree Research (HDR) course or supervising HDR students;
• professional development associated with informing higher education learning and teaching in a relevant discipline, including disciplinary knowledge;
• undertaking advanced specialist practice or scholarly secondments.

Research Active Status

As guided by Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), an LI full-time academic staff member who achieves at least five weighted research points in the past five years may be listed on the LI Academic Staff Register as “research active” (pro-rata for early career or part-time academic staff). This includes:

• peer-reviewed monograph (5);
• editing a peer-reviewed collection of essays in a book or journal (2);
• peer-reviewed journal article, book chapter, or conference paper (1);
• research or professional industry grant (1 point per $10,000 up to a maximum of 2 points);
• external peer reviewer or examiner e.g. HDR examination, competitive research grants, peer review of research articles, manuscripts, or book reviews (0.25 to a maximum of 1);
• Plant Breeder’s Right (1);
• Patent (1).

A publication, grant, or patent with multiple authors counts as one point for each author.

Objective indicators of the quality research output are considered including, but not limited to, number of citations.

Research Supervision

All research students require a supervisor for their capstone or research projects.

Research Student Responsibilities

The research student is expected to:

• abide by all relevant LI policies, including the Code of Conduct Policy;
• meet regularly with the appointed supervisors and keep accurate records of meetings;
• submit material to supervisors within the agreed timeframes;
• consider carefully and respectfully feedback provided by the supervisors;
• submit the final project by the due date.

If a student wishes to discuss any concerns about progress of supervision in confidence, they may directly contact the relevant Program Director.

Supervisor Responsibilities for Research Students

All research students require a supervisor for their research projects. Supervisors are expected to:

• abide by all relevant LI policies, including the Code of Conduct Policy;
• meet regularly with the student and keep accurate records of meetings;
• provide constructive and timely feedback and support to the student in all research requirements;
• advise the student on any additional skills training required for the research;
• notify the Program Director if the student is not meeting expected progress goals;
• encourage the student to present their research at a conference or in a publication;
• where possible, remain as supervisor for the duration of the research project;
• organise alternate arrangements and information the relevant Program Director if absent for more than four weeks in a semester;
• identify shortcomings in the research and provide written and oral feedback for improvements;
• mark the completed project in a timely manner if supervising coursework capstone research.

HDR Principal Supervisor Additional Responsibilities

All HDR students require on principal supervisor who is approved by the Vice President Academic as an HDR principal supervisor on the LI Academic Staff Register. The principal supervisor is expected to:

• assist the HDR student in preparing for confirmation of candidature;
• provide an annual progress report of the student to the HDR Program Director;
• identify and recommend external examiners.

HDR Associate Supervisor Responsibilities

All HDR students require at least on associate supervisor who is approved by the Vice President Academic as an HDR associate supervisor on the LI Academic Staff Register. The associate supervisor is expected to:

• assist the principal supervisor and HDR student in research progress within the period of candidature;
• provide continuity of advice during periods of absence by the principal supervisor;
• provide input regarding confirmation of candidature and progress checks;
• perform additional duties as negotiated with the HDR Program Director, principal supervisor, and/or HDR student.

CRITERIA FOR SUPERVISORS

Supervisors of research students must:

• be employed or contracted by LI;
• hold a completed N+1 degree or equivalent professional qualifications;
• be current in required professional development.

CRITERIA FOR HDR PRINCIPAL SUPERVISORS

HDR principal supervisors of HDR students must:

• be employed or contracted by LI;
• hold a completed doctorate in a relevant field;
• be current in required HDR supervision training and professional development;
• be research active in a relevant field.

CRITERIA FOR HDR ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS

HDR principal supervisors of HDR students must:

• have relevant qualifications and/or experience to inform the HDR student’s research;
• have appropriate time available to perform the duties of associate supervisor;
• have required HDR supervision training and professional development.

First-Time HDR Supervisors

Academic staff who have no prior experience with HDR supervision are expected to serve as associate supervisor under the mentorship of an experienced principal supervisor at least once before they are eligible to be a principal supervisor.

Conflict of Interest

In the event of a conflict of interest, the Program Director will intervene to provide a satisfactory solution (such as appointing an alternative supervisor).

Authorship

LI adopts the principles embodied in the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research for the attribution of authorship in research publications. Agreement should be reached between the student and supervisor(s) concerning authorship of publications. Co-authorship is appropriate when the student and supervisor(s) have both made a substantial contribution.

Special Research Leave

Subject to budgetary constraints, LI provides opportunities for LI permanent academic staff to undertake Special Research Leave (SRL) for a maximum of six months. Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• have usually been employed by LI continuously for at least seven (7) years on a permanent academic contract;
• have produced high quality research publications within the previous five (5) years;
• the SRL proposal demonstrates tangible benefit to the research and LI;
• the applicant has not been on probation due to unsatisfactory conduct, performance, or misconduct;
• no period of SRL may exceed six (6) months.

Conditions

The SRL researcher shall:

• agree to return to LI after completing SRL and remain in its service for at least one more year;
• not be permitted, while on SRL, to accept remunerative employment outside of LI (excluding external research grants).

PROCEDURES

Funding and Workload Allocations

LI funds research active permanent academic staff to maintain membership in relevant academic societies, present papers at academic conferences and/or receive a research workload allocation where appropriate. Applications for research workload allocation are negotiated with the relevant supervisor. Applications for competitive conference funding may be submitted by research active staff and HDR students for approval by Research and Scholarship Committee as part of the LI annual budget cycle and within the parameters of available funds.

Resources for HDR Students

LI provides the following support for HDR students:

Research Funding

HDR student research funding may include:

• research and writing software licensing e.g. Office 365, Zotero;
• other software and licensing for data analysis e.g. NVivo;
• additional library membership for specified research libraries;
• research methods and writing training support;
• professional development seminars to develop skills in independent and responsible research, as well as broader transferable skills for academic and non-academic careers;
• professional editing.

Requests for HDR student funding or other support must be approved by the HDR Program Director and are subject to budgetary constraints.

Allocation of Office Space

LI provides HDR students access to office space and facilities based on needs. The HDR Program Director, in consultation with the Operations Officer, considers all applications for HDR office space and makes the allocation.

Allocation of Library Resources

The LI global online library has funding allocated specifically to purchase digital resources required by HDR students. Acquisition requests are made directly to the LI Librarian.

Appointment of Supervisors

1. Prior to unit enrolment, the student is to approach a possible LI supervisor based on the research topic and the supervisor’s area of expertise.
2. Supervision arrangements are approved by the relevant Program Director, taking workload allocations into consideration.

Ethics Approval

1. All proposed human research must be approved by Research and Scholarship Committee prior to the commencement of the research;
2. Any complaints by participants in the research should be addressed to the relevant Program Director;
3. Complaints by researchers in relation to RSC will abide by the Complaints, Grievances, and Appeals Policy or Staff Grievance Policy;
4. Any alleged academic misconduct in research or in a research publication will be addressed according to the Academic Integrity Policy.

Special Research Leave Application

The applicant should submit the Special Research Leave Proposal Form, including:

• endorsement from the relevant supervisor;
• benefits to the researcher and LI;
• potential high quality publication outlets for research;
• detail delegation of duties while on SRL;
• any additional internal or external funding that will be allocated;
• a signed statement indicating that the applicant is aware of and agrees to all conditions of SRL.

Approval

• In line with the budgetary cycle, Research and Scholarship Committee will consider all SRL applications received for the following year;
• If recommended by Research and Scholarship Committee, the application is then tabled at Academic Board and Executive Management Team for approval;
• The awarding of SRL leave is a benefit not an entitlement and is at the discretion of Academic Board and Executive Management Team. No appeal will be considered.
• No substantial variation to the approved SRL can be made without approval by Research and Scholarship Committee, on the recommendation of the relevant supervisor.

Reporting

Within one month of completion of SRL, the researcher shall submit a written SRL Report to Research and Scholarship Committee.