Survey Identifies Trends at U.S. Colleges That Appear to Undermine Productivity of Scholars

The research output of faculty members at American colleges appears to be suffering at least in part as a result of declining financial support and scholars’ unwillingness to engage in collaborations with their peers abroad, according to a new analysis of international survey data.

The data analysis, discussed this month at the annual conference of the Association for Institutional Research, also concludes that U.S. scholars have less time for and less interest in research than they did before, which is probably contributing to their productivity decline. A rise in the share of U.S. faculty members who are untenured or work part time also may be playing a role because academics who have shaky employment status or are part time probably do not accomplish as much in research as do their tenured or full-time peers.

William K. Cummings, a professor of international education and international affairs at George Washington University, and Olga Bain, an assistant professorial lecturer at George Washington, conducted the analysis based on data from two international studies: a 1992 survey of faculty members in more than a dozen countries overseen by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and a 2007 survey of faculty members in 20 nations and Hong Kong conducted by an international research collaborative called the Changing Academic Profession.

A paper summarizing the researchers’ findings says they defined scholarly productivity in terms of the number of articles faculty members had published in refereed journals, and determined that “the factors most associated with productivity are an inclination to research, time devoted to research, full-professor status, and a pattern of international collaboration in research activities.” Other factors that have been thought to be tied to research productivity, such as the demographic makeup of the academic work force, did not play a significant role.

In comparing the 1992 and 2007 international-survey data, the researchers found that U.S. scholars in the latest survey were less likely to be interested in research, relative to teaching; were receiving less financial support for research and were less satisfied with the quality of equipment and laboratories; were less likely to be tenured or on the tenure track; and were slightly less likely to be involved in international collaborations.

For all fields, the average number of refereed journal articles produced by each researcher stood at 3.9 in 2007, down from 4.2 in 1992, the researchers’ paper says. It acknowledges, however, that merely counting scientists’ publication of refereed journal articles might underestimate their true productivity, in that they might be writing fewer articles of higher quality, or turning to electronic publications or conference presentations as their means of sharing findings with others. —Peter Schmidt