Ranking Universities for Scholarship in Public Administration Research 2006–2010

Abstract

There is a need to assess the scholarly activity of the field of public administration at the institutional level as it continues to develop as a separate, autonomous discipline and to evaluate academic and university reputation, impact, and directions of the public administration scholarly community. The authors surveyed public administration journals based upon criteria from Thompson Reuters Journal Citation Reports to determine productivity, quality, and overall institutional impact and then created an index. The study is based on previous attempts to rank universities in the field of public administration while drawing influence from the ranking systems found within other social science disciplines. The analysis shows what universities published in top public administration journals over a five-year period, 2006–2010, according these criteria. Discussions of the implications on teaching and research in public administration and public affairs are also considered.