Faculty Research Productivity: Institutional and Personal Determinants of Faculty Publications

Abstract

A good deal has been written about faculty productivity, usually measured by the number of publications in refereed journals, books, and/or the number of citations of those publications by discipline, by type of educational institution, and at various stages of the life cycle. A number of generalizations can be made that are applicable across a wide range of studies: 1) a small share of scholars account for the great majority of publications; 2) publication productivity differs across disciplines and types of institutions; 3) personal characteristics such as gender and race matter; 4) institutional characteristics matter; and 5) publication productivity varies over the life cycle. According to a U.S. Department of Education report, there were about 75,000 undergraduate students and 3,200 graduate students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in 1953–54 prior to the Brown v. Board decision. Black colleges awarded nearly 12,000 bachelor’s degrees and first-professional degrees and 1,300 master’s degrees. In the aftermath of the decision, black enrollment grew at both HBCUs and Historically White Colleges and Universities (HWCUs). Indeed, a 1961 study showed that only 17 percent of public higher education institutions in the South had admitted Black students. By 1965, HWCUs enrolled about one-quarter of Black students in the South and this increased to 40 percent by 1970. Enrollment in HBCUs continued to increase throughout the 1970s, peaking at 222,000 students in 1980. Some of the decline in Black enrollments at some HBCUs was counterbalanced by increased enrollment of students who were white and of other races. White students were concentrated in graduate and first-professional programs, and more often enrolled part-time.