Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC) shared comprehensive data on scholarly publication rates in 170 disciplines. The newly available data tables show the rate of journal article, book, conference proceeding, and book chapter publications over different time periods and across different career stages in each discipline.
“There’s a huge range of bibliometric activity across disciplines and by scholars 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 project participant Dick Wheeler, Graduate Dean Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Senior Academic Advisor, AARC.
An accompanying essay outlines documents potential pitfalls in bibliometric evaluation across disciplines that the new dataset can be used to address. Mean (average) publication rates, for example, are often skewed higher due to a small number of exceptionally well-published faculty members, potentially resulting in unrealistic publishing expectations. Meanwhile, focusing on journal articles puts some disciplines at a disadvantage in comparative evaluations because books (e.g., English language and Literature) or conference proceedings (e.g., Electrical Engineering) are more common modes of knowledge dissemination. Characteristic rhythms of publication – how often one publishes and in what venues – show great variation, even among closely related disciplines.
The dataset contributors believe that by making these data public, administrative leaders at research universities and others who rely on bibliometric evaluation can more comprehensively characterize publishing activity. The contributors also underscore that publishing is only one aspect of scholarship at research-intensive institutions, and publishing should always be considered within the context of teaching, service, career stage and objectives, individual circumstances, and myriad other responsibilities taken on by faculty members.
The full dataset can be accessed via OSF: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MYAUT
The accompanying text is available via SocArxiv: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/j8wec
About Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC)
Academic Analytics Research Center disseminates data and findings on issues of concern to the higher education community and the scholarly research enterprise. In addition to original research, AARC disseminates the Academic Analytics commercial database to other scholars wishing to incorporate scientometric data in their research programs. AARC strongly 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/
Journal
Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.812312
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
The Rhythms of Scholarly Publication: Suggestions to Enhance Bibliometric Comparisons Across Disciplines
Article Publication Date
25-Jan-2022
COI Statement
AARC is a unit of Academic Analytics, LLC, whose data are made available to AARC scholars. AARC Director Anthony Olejniczak co-founded Academic Analytics in 2005 and divested himself of all equity interest and management responsibilities in 2019 to establish AARC. As an employee of Academic Analytics with no other financial relationship or managerial role within the company, Anthony directs AARC independently and without oversight from Academic Analytics management (Anthony chooses projects and collaborators, and Academic Analytics management do not review or approve research outputs). AARC is committed to producing publicly available datasets for all projects and to publish only open access materials.
