Australia ERA FoR

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”).

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.

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”).

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

The schema has been updated to reflect the 2023 categories and journal classification. Learn more about the ERA 2023 on the Australian Research Council page and download the InCites B&A schema here: Australia ERA FoR 2023