University of Cincinnati Faculty Rank Among Nation s Most Productive

University of Cincinnati faculty make the grade in a national study, conducted by Academic Analytics. As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, UC faculty in six academic disciplines made the top 10 in their fields.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity (FSP) ranking system, developed by Academic Analytics, compares the scholarly accomplishments of faculty in doctoral programs at research universities. More than 160,000 faculty members at 375 institutions were considered. For the 2006–2007 rankings, 172 disciplines in 11 broad fields were reviewed for more than 7,400 PhD programs.

Academic Analytics’ formula looks at the number of faculty members, how much they were published, how much they were cited and how many awards they received. Biological sciences led the way for the six UC programs making the top 10:

• Biological sciences, various (2nd)
• Biomedical sciences, general (9th)
• Ecology (6th) 
• Physiology (7th)
• Environmental engineering (6th)
• Classics and classical languages (3rd)

The University of Cincinnati’s biological sciences ranking placed them below only Harvard, with an average of 10.15 journal publications per UC faculty member. In classics and classical languages, only Columbia and Brown universities came in above UC, although UC’s classics faculty have published more books on average (1.7 per faculty member compared to 1.4 for Columbia and 1.0 for Brown).

"This just confirms what we have always thought," notes Tim Keener, professor of environmental engineering and associate dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Engineering. "When you do a metrics-based program evaluation, our environmental engineering program comes out in the top 10 nationally."

Marshall Montrose, professor and chairman of the molecular and cellular physiology department, says the faculty-scholarly productivity ranking puts the physiology program on a “national billboard” for highly qualified students searching for the best programs.
 
“Broad opportunities for mentorship and a systems biology emphasis are things that we know to be important for our applicants,” says Montrose. “Recognition like this really helps to energize our program.”

The recognition is another feather in the cap for UC's Classics Department, which is traditionally viewed as one of the nation's top programs in its field.

Peter van Minnen, associate professor and acting head of the department, says: "The eight other institutions in the [Classics] rankings are indeed ones we usually compete with for graduate students and faculty members. We are pleased with the results reported here because they show us outperforming every other department but two, and yet we have the second-lowest number of faculty on the list with the largest number of graduate students to look after. Along with data from other sources, we believe this helps demonstrate that we are the hardest working Classics department around and deserve to be rewarded."

How the Rankings Are Calculated
The index ranks faculty members on as many as five factors: books published, journal publications, journal articles, federal-grant dollars awarded and honors and awards. The criteria are then weighted according to the value placed on each criterion in specific fields. The third annual rankings encompass

• 61,502 books;
• More than 1,000,000 journal articles;
• Nearly 9,200,000 citations;
• Federal research grants including National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Energy and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; 
• Nearly 27,000 awards and honors.

The numbers in the rankings reflect a statistical measure known as a “z-score,” which shows how far the program is above (or below) the mean. This way, once the individual programs are normalized for the number of factors in the rankings, a comparison can be made between disciplines. The higher the number is above zero indicates the better the program. A z-score of zero means that a program is exactly average.

University of Cincinnati — 2007
Discipline                                            Rank         FSP Index
Biological Sciences, various                 2                   1.19
Biomedical Sciences, general              9                   0.97
Ecology                                                      6                   1.18
Physiology, general                                 7                   1.18
Environmental Engineering                   6                   1.28
Classics and Classical Languages    3                   1.41

Read the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Faculty-Productivity Index Offers Surprises: Third annual ranking gives high marks to some lesser-known programs”

UC’s rankings

Academic Analytics

Last year's rankings: New National Rankings Cite UC Among the Nation’s Most Productive Faculty: A new report ranking the nation’s most productive research universities highlights UC faculty among the top producers.

The University of Cincinnati, home to more than 36,500 students, offers students a balance of educational excellence and real-world experience. Since its founding in 1819, UC has been the source of many discoveries creating positive change for society, including the first antihistamine, co-op education, the first electronic organ, the Golden Gate Bridge design and the oral polio vaccine. Each year, this urban, public, research university graduates 5,000 students, adding to more than 200,000 living alumni around the world. UC is the largest employer in the Cincinnati region, with an economic impact of more than $3 billion. The University of Cincinnati is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information visit www.uc.edu.