Comprehensive scholarly publishing dataset shows publication rates in 170 disciplines at US universities

A new study published in Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics examined publication patterns across 170 academic disciplines to better understand how disciplinary differences in publishing may be incorporated into bibliometric evaluation. Along with the publication, Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC) released a comprehensive dataset documenting scholarly publication rates and patterns in all 170 disciplines aimed at helping administrative leaders make more nuanced publication comparisons across fields when coupled with other faculty responsibilities.

The newly available data shows the number and publication rates of journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and book chapters across different timeframes and among scholars at different career stages in each discipline.

 “There’s a huge range of bibliometric activity across disciplines at different points in their career, and limited access to data like these means that those differences aren’t always taken into account by university committees and administrators making comparisons across fields,” according to Dick Wheeler, Senior Advisor, Academic Analytics Research Center, and project participant. He also is Graduate Dean Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mean (average) publication rates, for example, are often skewed higher due to a small number of well-published faculty members, potentially resulting in unrealistic publishing expectations for early career scholars, Wheeler said.

Meanwhile, a focus on journal articles puts some fields at a disadvantage in bibliometric comparisons – for instance subjects such as English Language and Literature where books and chapters are more common than articles, or Electrical Engineering where conference proceedings are most common. Further, how often a scholar publishes and in what venues shows significant variation, even among closely related disciplines. The dataset contributors believe that by making these data public, administrators who rely on bibliometric evaluation can better characterize an academic unit’s publishing activity. However, Wheeler said, “the contributors emphasized publishing is only one aspect of scholarship at research-intensive institutions and should always be considered within the context of teaching, service, career stage and objectives, and myriad other faculty responsibilities.”

The dataset can be accessed via OSF:  https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MYAUT

The accompanying publication is available at:  https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.812312

AARC Disseminates Data on Higher Education Issues

Academic Analytics Research Center discovers and disseminates data and findings on issues of concern to the higher education community and the scholarly research enterprise. In addition to conducting original research, AARC disseminates the Academic Analytics commercial database to scholars wishing to incorporate scientometric data in their research programs. AARC supports open access and has committed to making all of their articles and datasets available openly.

For more information about AARC please visit https://aarcresearch.com/

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