Productivity Metrics: What is the best way to assess faculty activity?

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Vimal Patel

February 29, 2016

Questions about faculty productivity are nothing new. But the growing use of metrics to assess

faculty activity has raised the stakes at a time when colleges already face growing pressure to

demonstrate accountability and compete with peer institutions.

Meanwhile, questions about how to measure a scholar’s influence in social media, known as

"altmetrics," are expected to add to the debate over faculty productivity.

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U.S. Medical Schools Are Faulted for Failing to Report Results of Human Trials

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Paul Basken
February 18, 2016
 

Only about 29 percent of completed medical trials conducted at major American academic centers

lead to published or reported results within two years, according to one of the most detailed

analyses of the problem.

The findings, published on Wednesday in BMJ, suggest that universities and their funders still are

falling well short on a major yardstick of open science and of responsibility to participating patients.

"The academic institutions are doing very little about this — nothing, in fact," said a lead author,

Harlan M. Krumholz, a professor of medicine at Yale University.

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U.S. House Backs New Bid to Require ‘National Interest’ Certification for NSF Grants

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Paul Basken
February 11, 2016

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Wednesday that would require the National Science Foundation to award grants only for research projects that the agency can certify as being in the national interest.

The Republican-written measure (HR 3293), passed on a nearly party-line vote of 236 to 178, would set a series of broad yardsticks by which the "national interest" could be defined, such as improving American economic health or strengthening national defense.

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Research into critical national issues at forefront of NSF's FY2017 budget request

National Science Foundation (NSF)
Press Release 16-013
February 9, 2016

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director France A. Córdova today outlined how President Obama's fiscal year (FY) 2017 request for NSF supports research into critical national issues, including clean energy technologies, food sustainability, disaster response and education. The FY2017 budget requests $8 billion, an increase of about 6.7 percent, or about $500 million, over the enacted FY2016 budget.

"This budget proposes priorities that count on robust funding. It allows NSF to remain one of the country’s leaders in funding research, development and -- most importantly -- the people who are our innovators and discoverers," Córdova said.

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