Abstract
The publication productivity of American academics over the past two decades is compared to that of academics in other nations. From that analysis emerges a troubling picture of a decline in the share of US-originated publication amid a gradual rise in publication productivity across the globe, especially in East Asia. The analysis then shifts to the search for the source of the newly emerging publication gap. Declining public investment in research and development in the USA and the increased emphasis on the teaching responsibilities of US academics are identified as important factors.
An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the 2010 Hiroshima University International Forum on the Changing Academic Profession.
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Notes
- 1.
Detailed descriptions of the methodology for the databases used to compute these figures (and those in Table 4.1) can be found in NSB (2010), pp. 5–30 to 5–31. The key sources for the articles are the Science Citation Index (SCI) and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). These indexes classify articles by year of publication and country/economy of author’s institutional affiliation; where there is more than one author, fractional assignments are used. The NSB totals are for articles in highly cited journals as determined by the Patent Board. The number of such journals has increased over time.
- 2.
Most of the samples of the CAP study were from “national” academic populations. Hong Kong, a region of China, is an exception. The CAP study included samples of academics both from mainland China and from Hong Kong. In the discussion below, we will sometimes refer to Hong Kong as a nation, even though the correct designation should be region.
- 3.
In the US context, the most recent comprehensive examinations of individual faculty research productivity include the work of Blackburn and Lawrence reported most fully in Faculty at Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995) and that of Carole Bland et al. (2006).
- 4.
In part, that differential may be attributable to the greater diversity of the US system, with a substantial proportion of nonuniversities among the 4-year college and university sector.
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Cummings, W.K., Finkelstein, M.J. (2012). Comparing the Research Productivity of US Academics. In: Scholars in the Changing American Academy. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2730-4_4
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