Australia ERA FoR

Updated 11 June 2024 21:30

Schema Scope 2020

The revised Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC 2020) is available on the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Stats NZ websites.

There are 24 FoR2, two-digit category codes, which denote broad levels of research, including a code “MD” for Multidisciplinary. There are 212 published FoR4 categories, which are numbered according to the broader FoR2 category in which they fall. For example, Political Science (FoR4=“4408”) rolls up into Human Society (FoR2=“44”).

Schema Type

Journal mapping where a set of journals are mapped to one or more classification. Ultimately, only those journals which are indexed in Web of Science are used in calculating the metrics.

Method

The classification is the result of nearly two years of extensive consultations with researchers, universities, peak bodies, and other users of the classification undertaken by ANZSRC Review team, part of the Australian Research Council.

Major changes to the Fields of Research classification include:

Splitting Division 11 Medicine Division into two new Divisions, Biomedical and clinical sciences and Health Sciences
Introduction of a new Division to capture Indigenous studies, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pacific Peoples research
Removal of the Division 10 Technology
A number of Divisions, including Information and computing sciences, Psychology, and Law and legal studies, have been substantially updated.

Major changes to the Socio-Economic Objectives classification include:

Removing the top ‘Sector’ level of the classification and associated letter codes
Splitting Division 96 Environment into two new Divisions, Environmental management and Environmental policy, climate change and natural hazards
Introduction of a new Division to capture Indigenous outcomes.

Both classifications are completely renumbered to streamline use and reduce confusion between the old and new versions of ANZSRC.

**Not all journals will be sufficiently specialized to warrant a FoR4 code, so the sum of individual document counts for any group of FoR4 codes that share a 2-digit prefix (e.g., “0101”, “0102”, “0103”, “0104”, “0105”, “0199”) may be less than the sum of individual document counts for the parent FoR2 code (i.e., “01”).

Australia FOR Research Areas

Level 1

30 Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
31 Biological sciences
32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
33 Built environment and design
34 Chemical sciences
35 Commerce, management, tourism and services
36 Creative arts and writing
37 Earth sciences
38 Economics
39 Education
40 Engineering
41 Environmental sciences
42 Health sciences
43 History, heritage and archaeology
44 Human society
45 Indigenous studies
46 Information and computing sciences
47 Language, communication and culture
48 Law and legal studies
49 Mathematical sciences
50 Philosophy and religious studies
51 Physical sciences
52 Psychology
MD Multidisciplinary

Level 2

3001 Agricultural biotechnology
3002 Agriculture, land and farm management
3003 Animal production
3004 Crop and pasture production
3005 Fisheries sciences
3006 Food sciences
3007 Forestry sciences
3008 Horticultural production
3009 Veterinary sciences
3099 Other agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
3101 Biochemistry and cell biology
3102 Bioinformatics and computational biology
3103 Ecology
3104 Evolutionary biology
3105 Genetics
3106 Industrial biotechnology
3107 Microbiology
3108 Plant biology
3109 Zoology
3199 Other biological sciences
3201 Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
3202 Clinical sciences
3203 Dentistry
3204 Immunology
3205 Medical biochemistry and metabolomics
3206 Medical biotechnology
3207 Medical microbiology
3208 Medical physiology
3209 Neurosciences
3210 Nutrition and dietetics
3211 Oncology and carcinogenesis
3212 Ophthalmology and optometry
3213 Paediatrics
3214 Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences
3215 Reproductive medicine
3299 Other biomedical and clinical sciences
3301 Architecture
3302 Building
3303 Design
3304 Urban and regional planning
3401 Analytical chemistry
3402 Inorganic chemistry
3403 Macromolecular and materials chemistry
3404 Medicinal and biomolecular chemistry
3405 Organic chemistry
3406 Physical chemistry
3407 Theoretical and computational chemistry
3499 Other chemical sciences
3501 Accounting, auditing and accountability
3502 Banking, finance and investment
3503 Business systems in context
3504 Commercial services
3505 Human resources and industrial relations
3506 Marketing
3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
3508 Tourism
3509 Transportation, logistics and supply chains
3599 Other commerce, management, tourism and services
3601 Art history, theory and criticism
3602 Creative and professional writing
3603 Music
3604 Performing arts
3605 Screen and digital media
3606 Visual arts
3699 Other creative arts and writing
3701 Atmospheric sciences
3702 Climate change science
3703 Geochemistry
3704 Geoinformatics
3705 Geology
3706 Geophysics
3707 Hydrology
3708 Oceanography
3709 Physical geography and environmental geoscience
3799 Other earth sciences
3801 Applied economics
3802 Econometrics
3803 Economic theory
3899 Other economics
3901 Curriculum and pedagogy
3902 Education policy, sociology and philosophy
3903 Education systems
3904 Specialist studies in education
3999 Other Education
4001 Aerospace engineering
4002 Automotive engineering
4003 Biomedical engineering
4004 Chemical engineering
4005 Civil engineering
4006 Communications engineering
4007 Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics
4008 Electrical engineering
4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
4010 Engineering practice and education
4011 Environmental engineering
4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering
4013 Geomatic engineering
4014 Manufacturing engineering
4015 Maritime engineering
4016 Materials engineering
4017 Mechanical engineering
4018 Nanotechnology
4019 Resources engineering and extractive metallurgy
4099 Other engineering
4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation
4102 Ecological applications
4103 Environmental biotechnology
4104 Environmental management
4105 Pollution and contamination
4106 Soil sciences
4199 Other environmental sciences
4201 Allied health and rehabilitation science
4202 Epidemiology
4203 Health services and systems
4204 Midwifery
4205 Nursing
4206 Public health
4207 Sports science and exercise
4208 Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine
4299 Other health sciences
4301 Archaeology
4302 Heritage, archive and museum studies
4303 Historical studies
4399 Other history, heritage and archaeology
4401 Anthropology
4402 Criminology
4403 Demography
4404 Development studies
4405 Gender studies
4406 Human geography
4407 Policy and administration
4408 Political science
4409 Social work
4410 Sociology
4499 Other human society
4501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history
4502 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education
4503 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges and management
4504 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing
4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community
4506 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sciences
4507 Te ahurea, reo me te hītori o te Māori (Māori culture, language and history)
4508 Mātauranga Māori (Māori education)
4509 Ngā mātauranga taiao o te Māori (Māori environmental knowledges)
4510 Te hauora me te oranga o te Māori (Māori health and wellbeing)
4511 Ngā tāngata, te porihanga me ngā hapori o te Māori (Māori peoples, society and community)
4512 Ngā pūtaiao Māori (Māori sciences)
4513 Pacific Peoples culture, language and history
4514 Pacific Peoples education
4515 Pacific Peoples environmental knowledges
4516 Pacific Peoples health and wellbeing
4517 Pacific Peoples sciences
4518 Pacific Peoples society and community
4519 Other Indigenous data, methodologies and global Indigenous studies
4599 Other Indigenous studies
4601 Applied computing
4602 Artificial intelligence
4603 Computer vision and multimedia computation
4604 Cybersecurity and privacy
4605 Data management and data science
4606 Distributed computing and systems software
4607 Graphics, augmented reality and games
4608 Human-centred computing
4609 Information systems
4610 Library and information studies
4611 Machine learning
4612 Software engineering
4613 Theory of computation
4699 Other information and computing sciences
4701 Communication and media studies
4702 Cultural studies
4703 Language studies
4704 Linguistics
4705 Literary studies
4799 Other language, communication and culture
4801 Commercial law
4802 Environmental and resources law
4803 International and comparative law
4804 Law in context
4805 Legal systems
4806 Private law and civil obligations
4807 Public law
4899 Other law and legal studies
4901 Applied mathematics
4902 Mathematical physics
4903 Numerical and computational mathematics
4904 Pure mathematics
4905 Statistics
4999 Other mathematical sciences
5001 Applied ethics
5002 History and philosophy of specific fields
5003 Philosophy
5004 Religious studies
5005 Theology
5099 Other philosophy and religious studies
5101 Astronomical sciences
5102 Atomic, molecular and optical physics
5103 Classical physics
5104 Condensed matter physics
5105 Medical and biological physics
5106 Nuclear and plasma physics
5107 Particle and high energy physics
5108 Quantum physics
5109 Space sciences
5110 Synchrotrons and accelerators
5199 Other physical sciences
5201 Applied and developmental psychology
5202 Biological psychology
5203 Clinical and health psychology
5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
5205 Social and personality psychology
5299 Other psychology

Category mapping: FoR Category to Web of Science Category Mapping 2020