College Rankings and Faculty Publications: Are They Related?

Abstract

4 6 '^■•■^^^ublish or Perish. Long a truism among college ■ ^Jand university faculty, this phrase also applies to B^^^^the larger picture of their institutions. Two cur■■^^^ rent examples boldly illustrate how true this is. I First, consider Brown University. Brown cur•JHL. rently ranks in the top category (Most Competitive) in the Barron 's Admissions Selector. Moreover, for 1997, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) database (described below) credits Brown with an impressive 1,797 publications or 324 ISI publications per 100 faculty members. Brown also continues to receive record numbers of applications each year, and recently completed one of the most successful fund-raising campaigns in its history. On the other side of the coin, New Jersey's Upsala College closed its doors permanently after its 1995 graduation exercise. Before shutting down, the school had offered several enticements to lure students, including deep tuition discounts. Upsala held a Competitive (3) ranking in Barron 's, but the ISI database listed fewer than 35 total publications to its credit for the previous decade or so.