The challenges to academic decision makers resulting from the growing practice of faculty collaboration on publications are discussed. A 25-year publication history of authorship placement (first-named, second-named of 2, or latter-named of several) by 150 university chemists is analyzed to derive a typology for evaluation of faculty performance,…

Adam Smith's discussion of the payment modes of teachers and resulting consequences for the quality of teaching and process of curricular innovation are reviewed through the conceptual lens of modern agency theory. Smith's analysis of higher education in his day (eighteenth century) sheds light on faculty incentive and assessment problems that…