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Academic inbreeding and research productivity and impact in Australian law schools

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  • Russell Smyth

    (Monash University)

  • Vinod Mishra

    (Monash University)

Abstract

This study compares the research productivity and impact of inbred and non-inbred faculty employed at Australian law schools. The sample consists of 429 academics, employed at 21 law schools. To measure research productivity and impact we use articles published in top law journals, defined in six different ways, as well as total citations and two different citation indices. We report results including, and excluding, publications in the academic’s home law review. We find evidence that silver-corded faculty outperform other faculty on one of the measures of publications in top journals, once the endogeneity of academic seniority, grant history and the status of the law school at which the individual is employed is addressed, but this finding is not robust across alternative measures of articles published in the top journals. We find that there is no statistically significant difference between the research productivity and impact of inbred and non-inbred faculty. This finding is robust to a range of different ways of measuring research productivity and impact and alternative econometric approaches, including using two-stage least squares to address the endogeneity of academic seniority, grant history and the status of the law school at which the legal academic is employed.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell Smyth & Vinod Mishra, 2014. "Academic inbreeding and research productivity and impact in Australian law schools," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 583-618, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:98:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1052-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1052-2
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    Cited by:

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    2. Olga Gorelova & Andrey Lovakov, 2016. "Academic Inbreeding and Research Productivity Of Russian Faculty Members," HSE Working papers WP BRP 32/EDU/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. repec:hig:wpaper:32edu2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Vadim N. Gureyev & Nikolay A. Mazov & Denis V. Kosyakov & Andrey E. Guskov, 2020. "Review and analysis of publications on scientific mobility: assessment of influence, motivation, and trends," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1599-1630, August.
    5. Olga Alipova & Lada Litvinova & Andrey Lovakov & Maria Yudkevich, 2018. "Inbreds And Non-Inbreds Among Russian Academics: Short-Term Similarity And Long-Term Differences In Productivity," HSE Working papers WP BRP 48/EDU/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    6. Engin Karadag & S. Koza Ciftci, 2022. "Deepening the Effects of the Academic Inbreeding: Its Impact on Individual and Institutional Research Productivity," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(6), pages 1015-1036, September.
    7. Horta, Hugo & Yudkevich, Maria, 2016. "The role of academic inbreeding in developing higher education systems: Challenges and possible solutions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 113(PB), pages 363-372.
    8. Borenstein, Denis & Perlin, Marcelo S. & Imasato, Takeyoshi, 2022. "The Academic Inbreeding Controversy: Analysis and Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    9. Marek Kosmulski, 2015. "Careers of young Polish chemists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1455-1465, February.
    10. Luís Filipe Miranda Grochocki & Andrea Felippe Cabello, 2023. "Research collaboration networks in maturing academic environments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2535-2556, April.
    11. Bäker, Agnes, 2015. "Non-tenured post-doctoral researchers’ job mobility and research output: An analysis of the role of research discipline, department size, and coauthors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 634-650.
    12. Grochocki, Luís Filipe de Miranda & Cabello, Andrea Felippe, 2022. "Academic endogamy or immobility? The impact on scholarly productivity in a developing country," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. João M. Santos & Hugo Horta & Huan Li, 2022. "Are the strategic research agendas of researchers in the social sciences determinants of research productivity?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 3719-3747, July.

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