| Editorial | Labour History, 93 | The History Cooperative

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EDITORIAL

Two founders of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) – Eric Fry and Bob (Robin) Gollan – passed away in October: Eric was a great mentor to me and many others. I remember what a gentle person he was and how he could deal calmly with any situation. He encouraged my interest in labour history and my activism in the Society. While I did not have such a strong personal connection with Bob, his publications had a major influence on my intellectual development. His book The Coalminers of New South Wales emphasised the importance of looking at capital as well as labour in understanding the history of the labour movement. Labour historians will miss these two men greatly and will always remember them. The May 2008 issue of Labour History will be dedicated to Eric and Bob and will contain reminiscences of their personal qualities and their many achievements.

Eric, Bob and their colleagues built a strong foundation for ASSLH and its journal, Labour History. This can be seen in the current push by the Federal Government to quantify academic research performance which has become a major preoccupation for Australian academics. The Research Quality Framework (RQF) tries to rank academic journals in terms of quality using measures such as the level of citations. Citation indexes pose problems for Australian journals and researchers who focus on Australian issues. Clearly a US journal which focuses on US issues will have a wider readership and higher citation rate than an Australian one. There are also dangers that the privileging of a small group of academic journals may strengthen orthodox ways of thinking and make it difficult for innovative and challenging ideas to develop.

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