Faculty Research Productivity: Why Do Some of Our Colleagues Publish More than Others?

Abstract

The justification for studying faculty research productivity is that it affects individual advancement and reputation within academe, as well as departmental and institutional prestige (Creamer 1998, iii). Publication records are an important factor in faculty performance evaluations, research grant awards, and promotion and salary decisions. The phrase “publish or perish” encapsulates the importance of research productivity to academic careers. In addition, questions are sometimes raised about whether an individual's status as a minority within academia (e.g., being a member of an underrepresented ethnic or racial group or being female in a male-dominated profession) affects his or her ability to publish or likelihood of publishing (Cole and Zuckerman 1984; Bellas and Toutkoushian 1999). Finally, most previous work that tackles the productivity causality puzzle comes from disciplines other than political science. Thus, one of the purposes of this report is to explore whether the existing findings about research productivity in other disciplines apply equally well to research productivity in political science.

Reviewer Fatigue? Why Scholars Decline to Review their Peers’ Work

“…A number of studies evaluate trends in publishing in political science journals (e.g., Breuning and Sanders 2007 ;Hancock, Baum, and Breuning 2013 ;Hesli and Lee 2011 ;Hesli, Lee, and Mitchell 2012 ;Maliniak, Powers, and Walter 2013 ;Østby et al 2013 ;Wilson 2014 ). They address the factors that make scholars productive, impediments to publishing, and patterns in citation.…”

Women Don't Ask? Women Don't Say No? Bargaining and Service in the Political Science Profession

“…The provision of more frequent and less-prestigious service could contribute to female scholars spending less time on research relative to male scholars, which could explain the overall lower number of total career articles published by women relative to men (Allen 1998;Hesli and Lee 2011).…”

“…This gap is also difficult to close; even if women receive higher percentage annual raises, women's salaries lag behind men's salaries if they have a lower starting salary (Gerhart 1990). The lack of bargaining for promotion may contribute to the leaky pipeline in the academic profession, whereby women represent a smaller percentage of scholars within higher academic ranks, especially at the full professor level (Allen 1998;Bellas and Toutkoushian 1999;Hesli and Lee 2011).The second issue, "women don't say no," relates to whether female academics engage in professional service more often than their male peers. While some studies find few differences in the number of hours male and female faculty devote to service (Bellas and Toutkoushian 1999;Russell, Fairweather, and Hendrickson 1991;Singell, Lillydahl, and Singell 1996), others find that female faculty and faculty of color are more likely than their comparative counterparts to engage in service to their institution and their profession (Turk 1981;Turner and Myers 2002).…”

Contributors to the American Sociological Review, 2010

“…Individuals that invest in education or specialized skills tend to get rewards from such investments. Hesli and Lee (2011) point out that: "human capital addresses any contextual or individual attributes that could potentially influence the quality of an individual's research skills or training" (p. 393). Human capital theory has been noted to be a contributing factor as to why women and minorities, especially Blacks publish fewer articles in top ranked scholarly journals, such as the American Sociological Review, American Economic Review and the American Political Science Review (Kaba, 2013a: pp.…”

“…Within the higher education system of the United States, in the social sciences, one could extract these three sister academic fields or disciplines, economics, political science and sociology and make the claim that a significant number of the scholars in all three disciplines tend to fit the descriptions above because the top rated journal for each, American Economic Review (AER), American Political Science Review (APSR), and the American Sociological Review (ASR) have enormous influence in their disciplines, in and outside of the social sciences, and in society in general (Allen, 2003;Baldi, 1998;Bott and Hargens, 1991;Burris, 2004;Eliason, 2008;Hargens, 1991;Hesli and Lee, 2011;Jacobs, 2005Jacobs, , 2007Jacobs, , 2011Kaba, 2013a: pp.1-4;2013b: pp. 54-55;Keith and Babchuk, 1998;Lyytinen et al, 2007;Oromaner, 1977Oromaner, , 1986Paxton and Bollen, 2003: pp.…”