The prevailing ‘audit culture’ in national governments has seen a global proliferation of research performance evaluation schemes. Most recently the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) results have been published. The results from this bibliometrically based ranking exercise provide an interesting comparison with the earlier results from New Zealand’s Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) exercise. With a focus on the computing disciplines this paper sets these developments in the global context; compares the outcomes under each scheme; the extent to which the prevailing publication cultures have been supported or undermined; the scope for such schemes to render whole sub-disciplines invisible and the potential impacts for the computing disciplines from such exercises.