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Reputation, research and reality: The publication records of UK Departments of Politics, 1978–1984

Abstract

This article contributes some data on the relative research performance of university departments, a topic of growing interest. It analyses the total published andper capita publication rates of 52 UK Politics Departments from 1978 to 1984. The main findings are that 1) departmentalper capita publication rates vary enormously: 2) a department's relative productivity is strongly correlated across all types of publication; 3) a few departments are substantially more productive then the rest; 4) among highly productive departments, one can usefully distinguish between those with ‘collective’ and those with ‘individual’ strength 5) a department's productivity is not related to its size. Various rankings are compiled and compared with theTHES peer review and the UGC's classification of research quality.

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Notes and references

  1. Cmnd. 9524, HMSO, May 1985, p. 49.

  2. See, for example, C. E. RUDDER, The quality of graduate education in political science: a report on the new rankings,PS, 16 (1983) 48; S. WELCH, J. HIBBING, what do the new ratings of political science departments measure?,PS, 16 (1983) 532; H.-D. KLINGEMANN, Ranking the graduate departments in the 1980s: Toward Objective Indicators, 19 (1986) 651.

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  3. See K. NEWTON, Facilities and resources for political scientists,Studies in Public Policy, No. 79, Centre for the study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 1981, 5–19.

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Crewe, I. Reputation, research and reality: The publication records of UK Departments of Politics, 1978–1984. Scientometrics 14, 235–250 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020077

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020077

Keywords

  • Research Performance
  • Relative Research
  • Relative Productivity
  • Research Quality
  • Publication Record