A new national assessment of faculty scholarly productivity ranks Arizona State University’s doctoral programs in kinesiology and exercise science in the top 10 U.S. research universities. ASU’s kinesiology and exercise science discipline was ranked ninth in the new Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, produced by Academic Analytics.

Lawrence Mandarino, chair of kinesiology and director of ASU’s Center for Metabolic Biology, says of the No. 9 ranking for kinesiology and exercise science: “We’re gratified to learn that the faculty of the department of kinesiology have been recognized as having a Ph.D. program that is ranked in the top 10 in the United States. This ranking is based on the high research productivity of our faculty, and is a testament to their hard work.

This follows on the heels of a national standing of 3^rd last year for Ph.D. programs that were ranked by the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

“We believe this ranking will help us recruit more of the top Ph.D. students in the world and is an important validation of the transition of kinesiology to a discipline within biomedical sciences,” Mandarino says.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index was released recently as a new quantitative method for ranking doctoral programs at U.S. research universities based on a set of statistical algorithms. The index measures the annual productivity of faculty based on a number of factors, including publications (books and journal articles), citations of journal publications, federal research funding, and awards and honors.

According to Academic Analytics, the 2005 index is based on data gathered from nearly 200,000 faculty members at 354 institutions, representing 118 academic disciplines in nearly 7,300 doctoral programs. It derives its information from Scopus, a product of academic publisher Elsevier, which is marketed as the largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality Web sources.

Academic Analytics is a collaboration between faculty and researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Educational Directories Unlimited.