Publication Productivity of African-American Social Work Faculty

Measuring the Quality of Peer-Reviewed Publications in Social Work: Impact Factors—Liberation or Liability?

“…Sellers et al (2006) also cite three other US studies that highlight the percentage of social work academics who publish their research in what are perceived to be non-social work journals-ranging from nearly 30% (Meinert, 1993) through 40% (Green and Secret, 1996), to 50% or more (Schiele, 1991;Green et al, 2002). Sellers et al (2006) speculate that these findings may reflect either the multi-disciplinary nature of social work and social work research, and/or authors' dissatisfaction with social work journals.…”

Should there be a Moratorium on Articles that Rank Schools of Social Work Based on Faculty Publications? Yes!

“…Green Hutchison, and Sar ( 1992) reported that 33% of social work doctoral graduates had never presented papers at professional meetings and 47% had never published. Schiele (1991) reported that 43% of African-American faculty had never published and " ... slightly under half (45.9%) of the total number of articles published were produced by 7.5% of the respondents." Abbatt (1985) found that doctoral graduates produce limited research after completing the dissertation.…”

Submission Rates Among African-American Faculty

“…In our profession, most of the social work research and reporting is carried out by social work faculty (Kirk & Rosenblatt, 1984;Task Force On Social Work Research, 1991). Thus, considerable attention has been given to the publication productivity of social work faculty (see Corcoran & Kirk, 1990;Euster & Weinbach, 1986;Faver & Fox, 1986;Fox & Faver, 1985;Green, Hutchison, & Sar, 1990;J ayaratne, 1979;Kirk & Rosenblatt, 1984;McNeece, 1981;Robbins, Corcoran, Helper, & Magner, 1985;Rubin & Powell, 1987;Schiele, 1991Schiele, , 1992aSchiele, , 1992bSmith, Baker, Camp·-journal of Social Work Education Vol. 31, No.…”

“…A consistent finding of these studies-one that raises important concerns about the expansion of the knowledge base-is that most published journal articles are produced by a minority of social work faculty. For example, a study that examined the lifetime publication productivity of social work faculty found that 64% of the respondents had never published an article in a social work journal (Schiele, 1991). Although many researchers have focused on publication productivity, a primary limitation has been the lack of attention given to submission rates.…”