Research performance of academic psychologists in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Research performance metrics inform decision making across the higher education sector. In this study we calculated up-to-date lifetime bibliometric research performance norms for academic psychologists in the UK, stratified by academic level and university mission group. Our performance metrics were publications, citations, h-index scores, first-author publications and average SJRs (SCImago Journal Ranks) for published in journals. These metrics were extracted from Scopus for a representative sample of 1339 academic psychologists employed at UK universities offering BPS (British Psychological Society) accredited undergraduate courses. We found that lifetime performance increased with seniority, though not in the predictable manner observed overseas. Academic psychologists in the Russell Group outperformed those outside of the Russell Group on all metrics, but these differences were largely due to the very strong research performance of the Russell Group professoriate, and could not be accounted for by the tendency for Russell Group academics to have been research active for a longer period of time than their equivalents outside the group. Overall, the research performance of UK academic psychologists was comparable to that of their Australian equivalents. Our research performance norms will be useful for benchmarking at the individual, departmental and institutional levels. However, they must be interpreted in context and considered alongside other indicators of scholarly productivity and performance.