The RQF was a federal Liberal government initiative planned for implementation in Australian universities in 2008. It can be viewed as an attempt to increase the quantity and, in particular, the quality and impact of research in Australian universities.
A more cynical view of the RQF was that its purpose was to further concentrate funding in those institutions, and in those disciplines and multi-disciplinary centres, that had achieved maturity and already had substantial research resources.
Under the provisions of the RQF, an assessment was to be made of the research produced by research groups within each Australian university. Based on this assessment, the Australian government was to distribute research funding to the universities. It seemed likely that the RQF would have more than just a financial influence; there was a likelihood that the RQF rating of individual Australian universities would be viewed as a significant indicator of the relative status of each university. The state reports each touch on various aspects of the proposed RQF and its impact on IS in Australian universities. The incoming Labor government announced, in December 2007, the abandonment of the RQF; however, an alternative mechanism for evaluating Australian university research output was foreshadowed.
A feature of the RQF was that researchers would receive little weight for publications in conference proceedings; much greater recognition was to be given for publication in research journals.
On the basis of the planned RQF, there is evidence that the low recognition accorded by the framework for publishing research in conference proceedings was leading to a change in the choice of publication outlets by Australian IS researchers. Since the RQF was to assess research publications from the previous three years as evidence of research productivity, IS researchers were seeking outlets for their research results in journals rather than via conferences. It could be supposed that the characteristics of any replacement for the RQF will result in some new reactive behaviour by Australian IS academics.
Researchers considered that the RQF would have an important influence on IS in Australian universities. One anticipated consequence was reduced participation in IS conferences by Australian IS researchers. In light of the observed impact of the proposed RQF, it is predicted that its foreshadowed replacement will also have the effect of changing aspects of the IS discipline in Australian universities.