Research-Productivity at Engineering-School: Number of Publications per Faculty-Member

Abstract

Research-productivity has-been attracting a-lot of attention, globally, among scientists, researchers, administrators, and policy-makers. The-present-study was conducted at-micro-level (sample-size 15), to-evaluate total and average annual-research-productivity, of individual-academicians, in an-Engineering school, over their-publication-career (from the-year of their-first-publication, through 2017). Moreover, research-productivity was-evaluated against: academic-rank, teaching-experience, age, gender, and the-field of engineering. Publications, in-peer-reviewed-scientific-journals, were used, as a-proxy, for research- productivity. Questionnaires, interviews, and document-analysis were the-main-instruments, for this-study. Descriptive-statistics was-used, to-analyze both; qualitative and quantitative-data, via EasyCalculation- software. The-obtained-data was analyzed, by SPPS-17(version 22). Moreover, to-bridge knowledge-gaps, the-following-issues were looked-into: The-role of universities in-research and development; Trends of scientific-publications; Challenges in-research and publishing, at the-African, and local-context; Basic-concepts and measurements of Research-productivity; and Reading-culture. The-study, revealed, that the-sample-faculty published, cumulatively, 230 papers, over their-productive-publishing-career. The-most-productive, with the-highest-average-number of total-publications, were: (1) Associate-professors, with 31.5; (2) Faculty-members, between 51 and 60 years-old, with 37; (3) Female-faculty, with 41; (4) Faculty, having over 25 years of teaching-experience, with 33; and (5) Faculty-members, from Civil and Structural department, with 33 publications. The-analysis also-revealed, that the-identified-average-number of 2.1 publications, per-faculty, per-year, compares-favorably with-estimations, of several-previous-authors; however, examination of research-productivity, at-individual-level, showed great-variations, e.g., the-most-productive-faculty-member (based on-both; total-number of publications, and average-number of publication, per-year), a-female associate-professor,  reported 41 articles, published-over 4-year-period (2012-2016), giving the-max individual average-number of 10.3 publications, per-year. The-min-number of publications was 8, in-the-period of 9 years (2006-2015), giving the-min individual-average of 0.9 publications, per-year. Besides, if individual-faculty is evaluated, for 70 % of the-respondents, their-average-number of publications, per-year, exceeds the-estimations, of one-publication, per-capita. The-study also-identified lack of any-international, or national-guidance, or institutional-policy, on how-many-publications, an-average-faculty-member should-produce, per-year, to-provide a-reliable-benchmark, for-comparison. In-addition, several-recommendations were given, for future-research.

Keywords: academic staff, measurement research productivity, reading culture, university.