Ascription or productivity? The determinants of departmental success in the NRC quality ratings

To see what factors explain departmental prestige ratings in sociology, this study assesses the effects of four ascriptive characteristics after holding departmental books, articles weighted by journal selectivity, citations, faculty size, and faculty rank constant. Departments in schools with "State," "A & M," or a direction in their name, departments with more female graduate students, and departments in urban public, largely commuter schools do worse on the NRC ratings. Departments with a few well-cited scholars receive lower scores than departments with comparatively equal citation counts across faculty, but departments from the three most prestigious Ivy League institutions receive stronger quality ratings after scholarly accomplishments have been held constant. The results show that both scholarship and ascription influence departmental prestige. (C) 1999 Academic Press.