Academic Analytics (academicanalytics.com) is a subscriber service that ranks specific PhD programs nationwide on a broad number of domains based on faculty productivity. The index takes account, for an academic year, of faculty program level productivity measures like publications (books and journal articles), citations of journal publications, federal research funding (NIH, USDE, etc.), and nationally recognized awards and honors (i.e., from APA, AERA, etc.).

As it turns out. MSU, as a whole, does not make the top 50 universities using this index. However some of our specific programs do, particularly those in my College (The College of Education). Of the 18 most productive programs at MSU, almost a quarter (4) are in Education; this compares favorably with Agricultural Sciences (4), Business (3), and Natural Resources (2).

Of particular interest is the Educational Psychology program (my home department, now known as Educational Psychology & Educational Technology) is listed number 1 in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. We have (presumably) the most productive Ph.D. faculty in the nation, followed by competing programs at Stanford (2nd), University of Wisconsin (4th), and University of Michigan (i.e., Education and Psychology) (9th).

To see the listings here (click on Social and Behavioral Sciences). Thanks to Dick Prawat (and an unnamed student) for bringing this to our attention.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Incidentally, this matches (somewhat) the 2009 U. S. News ranking of graduate programs in education (though their criteria may differ from those used by Academic Analytics). According to the wise people at USN&WR the elementary and secondary education programs were ranked #1, for the 14th consecutive year. Our college also tied for the #1 ranking in Rehabilitation Counseling. In addition, the College is ranked 2nd in Curriculum and Instruction, 4th in Higher Education, 5th in Educational Psychology, and 8th in Educational Policy. Overall the college is ranked 14th which is the same ranking we have had for the past 4 years.