"Journal-Ranking System Goes Down Under Weight of Controversy"

A wonderful title and a seriously interesting topic. To quote from here:

The Australian government abandoned its journal-ranking system yesterday, amid complaints that haphazard ranks (...) were affecting research financing and the careers of academics. The system was part of an overall initiative called Excellence in Research for Australia, which helps the government decide how much money goes to a given research unit at a university. Aspects of the journal rankings had been considered for possible adoption in the United States and Europe.

Also discussed in The Australian here and here, and on the official website of the ARC here. Of course, I have blogged about such rankings a couple of times, most recently here and here.