Dimensions of Faculty Research

Edited by Charles P. Baril, Donna L. Street, and Ralph L. Benke Jr.

207 pages, copyright 1990

Today, college and university professors are devoting more time and energy to research than ever before. Business school administrators reward faculty members pursuing scholarly activities, particularly those with corresponding publication records. Dimensions of Faculty Research is a collection of articles that will appeal to faculty and administrators interested in furthering their understanding of the research process and raising publication levels. The articles are organized into four broad sections.

• Scholarly Activity Defined:This introductory section addresses the scope of scholarly activity. While it is clear that academic publications are an integral component, a survey of faculty and administrators reveals five additional dimensions of scholarship.
• Importance of Faculty Research: The AACSB Task Force on Research argues that the overriding reason for encouraging faculty research is to enhance teaching. The six articles in this section examine this and other arguments for engaging in research.
• Correlates of Faculty Research:This section presents a series of articles offering tactics for increasing research output. The experiences and traits of prolific faculty are identified and examined.
• Conclusion:Based on a survey of faculty conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the concluding paper urges administrators to broaden their definitions of research and reward a combination of quality teaching and scholarly activity.