At the millennium: a slice of scholarship

Abstract

Scholarly output is the standard by which academics are judged; in particular journal articles. This study aimed to examine the scholarly output of nursing academics over a two-year period, and to establish benchmark data for future longitudinal comparisons. Journal articles were used as the unit of analysis. The following characteristics of articles were examined: whether articles were refereed or non-refereed; the type of journal; content characteristics; scholarly focus; predominant methodology of research articles; and predominant focus of specialty areas. The characteristics of principal authors and their effect on articles were also examined. The study demonstrated that while there had been no substantial increase in scholarly output, there was a clear link between higher academic rank and type of scholarly output. An increasing predominance of research articles was demonstrated, with a striking trend towards increased use of qualitative methodology, and in the number of publications by groups of authors.

Nurse-academics’ scholarly productivity: Perceived frames and facilitators

“…Half of the senior lecturers were included and one-fifth of the lecturers (level A and B). The sample was stratified this way in order to maximise the data collected as it is known from previous studies (Roberts, 1997;Roberts & Turnbull, 2002a;Roberts & Turnbull, 2002-2003 that publication is in proportion to academic rank. The effects of stratification were removed for the data analysis by performing computations that unweighted the sample.…”

“…The nature of teaching seems increasingly unremitting, yet rhetoric notwithstanding, where promotion is concerned, teaching scholarship is not valued as highly as research scholarship (Roberts & Turnbull, 2002a). The downsizing of staff numbers at the same time as a drive to increase student numbers must inevitably result in an increasing workload for those who choose to remain in the tertiary system.…”

“…Similarly, those in the lower ranks may have been more constrained by having to obtain their own higher qualifications. Those in the higher academic ranks are more likely to have already received their doctorate (Roberts & Turnbull, 2002a).…”

An Explorative Study of Australian Nursing Scholars and Contemporary Scholarship

“…Participants expressed significant discomfort about Australian academic publication productivity. This is confirmed by the concentration of Australian nursing scholarship literature on the topic (Emden, 1998;Roberts & Turnbull, 2002, 2004Walker & Holmes, 2008;Worrall-Carter & Snell, 2003), the benchmark of which in academia is peer reviewed publications and books and secured competitive grants . Our participants felt the increased pressure exerted by the ERA agenda (ARC, 2010) to publish in high-impact journals and conduct interdisciplinary research.…”

Scholarship and mentoring: An essential partnership?

“…This paper reports on part of a study that explored nursing academics' experiences of mentoring in relationship to scholarly productivity. Previous work by Roberts and Turnbull 21,22 examined levels of scholarship among nursing academics. This earlier work recommended a more in depth exploration of the role of mentoring.…”