DETERMINANTS OF RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

As research expenditures have risen and assources of research funding have changed, an increasedemphasis on research performance has developed in U.S.research universities. Although much of the historical debate has centered around the individualattributes of faculty, several recent studies have begunto focus on the effect of program or organizationalfactors as powerful attributes for enhancing suchproductivity. This paper extends the findings of these recentstudies by examining the relationship between academicresearch productivity and institutional factors from themost recent National Research Council data on the nation's research universities and theirprograms in the four broad fields of the biologicalsciences, engineering, the physical sciences andmathematics, and the social and behavioral sciences. Several findings are recommended forinstitutional policymakers.