School of Social Work ranked high for scholarly productivity
Craig Chamberlain, Education Editor 217-333-2894; cdchambe@illinois.edu
The UI School of Social Work was ranked number one in a study published last month on scholarly productivity in six prominent social work research journals.
The study, published in the Journal of Social Service Research, looked at the six journals over a five-year period, 1999-2003, and the UI social work faculty came out on top in the number of articles published during that time.
“I really am excited and terribly proud of this,” said Wynne Sandra Korr, the school’s dean. “We’re a small faculty and yet we did a great job at getting the word out and having an impact within our profession.”
Not only was the school ranked first, with 42 citations during the period studied, but it rose from a 14th-place ranking in the previous five-year study of the same journals.
Korr, who arrived as dean in 2002, said the first-place ranking was a clear indication of a commitment that began under a previous dean, Jill Doner Kagle, and continued under an interim dean, John Poertner.
Even though more than three years have passed since the study period ended, Korr said the results were still very relevant for the school, since most of the faculty members who produced that work are still in place. The research published during that time included important studies on welfare reform, child welfare and foster care, among other topics, she said.
The school also ranked high, at ninth place, in another just-published study of social work faculty research productivity in the Journal of Social Work Education, Korr said.
That study looked at a broader range of both social work and interdisciplinary journals, covering the period 2000-2004, she said. As in the Social Service Research study, the school also took a dramatic jump, rising from 25th place in a previous analysis of similar journals during the 1990s.
If the Social Work Education study had adjusted its numbers in relation to faculty size, Korr said the school might have been ranked number one there as well.
