At a time of great dynamism among publishers of scientific publications, with the inevitability of Open Access and the ease of publishing online at low cost, it is possible to find publications with different levels of scientific respectability. In this context, the improvement of the quality of scholarly publications emerges as a critical element…

The target article seems to provide yet another illustration of the classic "It don't make no nevermind" principle in statistical analysis. In particular, relatively simple measures appear to do approximately as well as more complex measures do, even including indicators that represent nonlinear transformations of the simpler measures. The authors…

In this article, the author comments on two highly cited articles and how they link to wider trends in higher education research. The two papers in question, Angela Brew's article from 2003, "Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education" and Gerlese Akerlind's…

Academic fame is an even stranger goddess than her nonacademic counterpart. In this article, the author contends that academic fame is not easily lost, compared with other kinds of fame. In the world of films or novels, one's fame is fleeting--one is often only as good as his last production. Films that splashed across marquees in the summer are…

William Boyd's contributions to the education field's understanding of the political nature of school leadership are formidable. In this article, I describe the growth and development, over a roughly 30-year time span, of his key insight that successful school leaders should have the capabilities of a "political strategist" and that the…

Nancy Siraisi has been a prolific and leading scholar in the history of medicine and science of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This lecture of hers is the twenty-eighth of series of lectures named for Charles Homer Haskins, first chairman of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and himself a famed medievalist who brought…

The claim that faculty conduct research is one of the main justifications for the modern university. Supposedly, academe carries out important, cutting-edge inquiries in which society has an interest. In fact, states this author, research at American universities is becoming narrow and artificial, out of touch with social realities, and of…

University presses have largely abdicated the job of substantive editing to outside readers, who write reports evaluating the quality of the work and offering both major and minor editing suggestions. Editors develop a cadre of readers they know they can trust, who will be fair, rigorous, and prompt with their reports. The author particularly…

A humorous guide advises scholars on how to channel their intellectual energies into becoming "distinguished scholars." Four suggestions include invent a continuum; learn more about something than anybody else has; compare the unrelated works of famous people; and draw upon knowledge from other disciplines. (MLW)

A variety of issues associated with resistance to or necessity for author-anonymous reviewing of scholarly work are examined: sex, age, and even name stereotyping; tradition; institutionalization of egalitarianism; promotion of newer scholars; and power politics. (MSE)

The current trend toward academic gamesmanship, characterized by interinstitutional competition for faculty, gives the general public a superficial notion of academic excellence, deceives higher education supporters, deprives undergraduates of teaching that they are paying higher prices to receive, and gauges success by ephemeral standards.…

Reasons that Hunter College of the City University of New York developed a Women's Studies Program, rather than a department, in 1975-1976 are discussed. Attention is directed to the question of what courses should become part of the program, along with efforts to expand course offerings and to foster collaboration with other programs and…

The way that institutional research directors manage their professional development and career paths was assessed, based on a survey of Association for Institutional Research members. Those contacted had been identified as successful persons in the field who had actively participated in the advancement of institutional research by contributing to…

The publication rates of female versus male faculty and factors that influence scholarly productivity for women faculty are discussed, based on the research literature. The academic reward structure and the payoffs resulting from scholarly productivity are also considered, along with the impact of productivity on building the reputations both of…

Conference papers on scholarship at a land-grant university, scholarship in general, and the interrelationships among scholarship, teaching, research, and societal needs are presented. In "Scholarship Through Teaching," Keith Goldhammer suggests that teaching, research, and scholarship are not separate domains, and that the teacher's role is to…