Trends in research productivity among senior faculty

摘要

Data from the vitae of 411 senior faculty at Syracuse University were analyzed to uncover trends in productivity over time. Results show that productivity is related to status and academic discipline. Overall, productivity earlier in a career is a good indicator of later productivity. Not surprisingly, full professors increase productivity to a greater extent than do assistant and associate professors. Increase in productivity among females is greater than among males, but males are more productive overall. Humanities and science/mathematics faculty increase productivity to a greater extent than do social sciences and professional school faculty. A citation analysis of a sample of the faculty included in the analysis does not appear to be a good tool to measure quality. Journal articles are cited much more than are book chapters, so faculty not tending to publish in journals do not show a high citation count. In addition, citation counts are biased toward older works, since they have had greater exposure than more recent works.