OVER the past three decades, governments and universities in OECD countries have relied mainly on six different mechanisms to safeguard quality in university research: competitive allocation of research funding to institutions; competitive funding of research projects using peer review; use of peer review by scholarly journals; citation indices; performance indicators; and external reviews. More recently, many countries have added new quality assurance mechanisms which have included emphasis on research, particularly ‘horizontal’ reviews of disciplines and ‘vertical’ academic audits. Two recent Australian developments of importance have been the national program of quality assurance from 1993–1995 and use of the Composite Index for allocation of the Research Quantum.