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Thirteen University of Georgia graduate programs ranked among the top ten in the nation in the third annual Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index — a ranking of graduate programs at research universities based on what is purported to be the first objective measurement of per-capita scholarly accomplishment.
Seven doctoral programs in the College of Education and six more from other UGA colleges were recognized for their faculty members’ ongoing scholarly productivity from among an index of 164,843 professors at 172 institutions across the country.
College of Education programs in the ranking were: Educational Leadership and Administration (10), Higher Education/Higher Education Administration (2), Mathematics Education (8), Science Education (4), Teacher Education Specific Levels (9), Health, Physical Education, Recreation (5) and School Psychology (9). Other UGA programs ranked were: Agronomy and Crop Science (10), Botany/Plant Biology (4), English Language and Literature (4), Languages (10), Management Information Systems (2) and Music (2).
“We are pleased that the productivity of our faculty is highlighted by this analysis, but not surprised. We have a great faculty—highly productive and making a difference in the lives of Georgians. I’m delighted to see them receive this well-earned recognition,” said Karen A. Watkins, associate dean for research and external affairs at UGA’s College of Education. “These results are consistent with previous rankings of our graduate programs such as that of U.S. News & World Report. We look forward to comparing these results with the National Research Council's new data, expected early next year.”
The ranking, provided by Academic Analytics, a for-profit company, owned in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is based on the number of professors in a given program, the number of books and journal articles they have written, the number of times other scholars have cited them, and the awards, honors and grant dollars they have received, and plug all of it into a neat algorithm.
Critics of the index object most to the way the company collects data. Academic Analytics compiles faculty lists from departmental and graduate-program Web sites, which it then submits to universities for verification. Last year 172 out of 375 institutions sent back corrected lists of names.
Others take issue with the weights assigned to the data and the rankings they produce, but some academics like the move away from the reputational rankings that anchored the National Research Council's last doctoral-program rankings in 1995.
Regardless of the rankings, the data provides valuable information. Universities buy reports comparing their departments with those of 10 peer institutions of their choosing. While Academic Analytics has yet to turn a profit, it has about 50 subscribers who pay between $10,000 and $40,000 a year, depending on the amount of data they request, Lawrence B. Martin, dean of the graduate school at Stony Brook and the company's founder told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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