Productivity of Doctoral Graduate Placement Among PhD-Granting Geography Programs in the United States: 1960–2010*

Abstract

We use a network analysis approach to assess the productivity of research doctoral geography programs in the United States based on data about faculty members who received their PhDs during the period from 1960 to 2010 and held tenured or tenure-track positions in PhD-granting geography programs in the United States during the 2009–2010 academic year. This study reveals the most productive programs that placed the highest number of doctoral graduates in PhD-granting geography programs in the nation. In addition, we discuss the changes of placement productivity of various programs over time and illustrate the centrality of different doctoral programs. Furthermore, results from a correlation analysis suggest that the ranking of research doctoral geography programs based on the placement productivity measures presented in this article resembles the 1995 National Research Council (NRC) ranking of research doctoral geography programs reasonably well and significantly correlates with three major ratings, the S-Rank, the R-Rank, and research, in the 2010 NRC ranking.