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)

Opinions about quality are seen as the only relevant measures of quality that can be collected. A different view of quality in higher education, and a different set of university rankings are proposed. A system that draws pairwise comparisons of university performance across nine disciplines is described. (MLW)

The 27-year history of the "Chronicle of Higher Education" is outlined, offering details of its origins, expansion, editorial policies, evolution of its reputation, staff, news reporting at home and overseas, and the continuing role of its founding editor and owner, Corbin Gwaltney. (MSE)

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation combined its concern that few top flight scholars are choosing the humanities for careers and its awareness of the current oversupply of humanities faculty to create a $24 million fellowship program to direct talented graduate students into English and comparative literature, American studies, history, classics,…

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)

A two-year study of the factors suspected of influencing the fairness of the peer review system (including the prestige of an institutional affiliation and the influence this might have in molding reviewers' opinions) is discussed. (MLW)

A discussion of the National Research Council's 1995 ranking of research-doctorate programs in the United States criticizes the report for what it does not address, particularly comparisons with the information it disseminated in a 1982 report, some data discrepancies, and central issues such as an institution's available methods of instruction,…

Quality rankings of undergraduate institutions and programs do exist although they are hard to find and often ignored. The accuracy of these ratings and how they can be improved are discussed. (MLW)

The five-volume Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, the most authoritative academic quality ranking ever done, is discussed. The Assessment covers 2,699 programs in 32 disciplines and assesses a faculty's reputation for scholarly quality. Improvements in programs' reputations are also discussed. (MLW)

Reports an exploratory study of the relationship between faculty publishing rates in basic and applied-research journals and institutional ranking based on 1995 data for 1,318 four-year colleges and universities. Results reveal a strong, positive association between scholarship and institutional ranking, with some interesting exceptions. (MSE)

The "U.S. News and World Report" rankings of colleges do not affect institutions equally; the schools impacted most are those that have the most to lose because they benefit from, even rely on, the rankings for prestige and visibility. The magazine relies on the rankings for substantial sales revenues, and has garnered considerable power…

The National Academy of Education is described as a loose federation of prominent educational and social science researchers, which has never pretended to be a think tank or a lobbying organization. Its influence is indirectly felt through the prestige and quality research of its members. (MLW)

Discusses, in the context of the National Research Council's next study of research-doctorate programs, arguments over continuing use of reputational surveys as the primary measure of program quality, as opposed to more objective measures of research performance. Eleven tables rank institutions for specific fields by reputation, citation density,…

A study on the objective correlates of undergraduate quality ratings, state or regional biases, and other methodological issues relating to reputational ratings of undergraduate quality is reported. The subjective judgments of departmental quality made by college and university faculty were studied. Reputational ratings appear to be redundant with…

A compilation of America's best professional schools based on data from a survey of deans in the field. (PG)