Academic Analytics matches a huge number of honorific awards (10,000+) to individual scholars in the American academy. AARC researchers recently began digging through this data trove, and some summary statistics by discipline offer a glimpse into the deeper patterns we’re investigating. We started with academic department faculty lists for the 2019/2020 academic year. We then matched national or international awards (no state or local awards) bestowed upon those academics between 2017 and 2019, and created a table showing the number of awards won per faculty member in each discipline (the table can be sorted, and it’s paginated – only showing 10 rows at a time):
ComparisonGroupName | awdsPerFac |
---|---|
Accounting | 0.08 |
Aerospace Engineering | 0.193 |
Agricultural Economics | 0.151 |
Agricultural/Biological Engineering and Bioengineering | 0.321 |
Agriculture, various | 0.134 |
Agronomy and Crop Science | 0.149 |
American Studies | 0.166 |
Anatomy | 0.064 |
Ancient Studies | 0.162 |
Animal Sciences | 0.196 |
Anthropology | 0.115 |
Applied Economics | 0.113 |
Applied Mathematics | 0.13 |
Applied Physics | 0.276 |
Architecture | 0.115 |
Architecture, Design, Planning, various | 0.105 |
Area and Ethnic Studies, various | 0.163 |
Art History and Criticism | 0.138 |
Asian Languages | 0.102 |
Asian Studies | 0.121 |
Astronomy and Astrophysics | 0.168 |
Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology | 0.233 |
Biochemistry | 0.115 |
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology | 0.13 |
Biological Sciences, various | 0.056 |
Biology/Biological Sciences, General | 0.09 |
Biomedical Engineering | 0.264 |
Biomedical Sciences, General | 0.077 |
Biomedical Sciences, various | 0.084 |
Biophysics | 0.097 |
Biostatistics | 0.125 |
Botany/Plant Biology | 0.161 |
Business Administration | 0.144 |
Business, various | 0.111 |
Cell Biology | 0.118 |
Chemical Engineering | 0.272 |
Chemical Sciences, various | 0.193 |
Chemistry | 0.18 |
Civil Engineering | 0.19 |
Classics and Classical Languages | 0.101 |
Clinical Psychology | 0.233 |
Cognitive Science | 0.268 |
Communication and Communication Studies | 0.216 |
Communication Disorders and Sciences | 0.069 |
Comparative Literature | 0.133 |
Composition, Rhetoric and Writing | 0.184 |
Computational Sciences | 0.148 |
Computer and Information Sciences, various | 0.18 |
Computer Engineering | 0.183 |
Computer Science | 0.212 |
Consumer and Human Sciences, various | 0.311 |
Counseling Psychology | 0.143 |
Counselor Education | 0.116 |
Criminal Justice and Criminology | 0.132 |
Curriculum and Instruction | 0.096 |
Developmental Biology | 0.134 |
Ecology | 0.218 |
Economics, General | 0.101 |
Education, General | 0.153 |
Educational Evaluation and Research | 0.171 |
Educational Leadership and Administration | 0.115 |
Educational Psychology | 0.136 |
Electrical Engineering | 0.205 |
Engineering Mechanics | 0.173 |
Engineering, General | 0.18 |
Engineering, various | 0.153 |
English Language and Literature | 0.102 |
Entomology | 0.125 |
Environmental Engineering | 0.203 |
Environmental Health Sciences | 0.082 |
Environmental Sciences | 0.147 |
Epidemiology | 0.088 |
Evolutionary Biology | 0.245 |
Family and Human Sciences, various | 0.147 |
Finance | 0.057 |
Fisheries Science | 0.1 |
Food Science | 0.184 |
Forest Resources/Forestry | 0.083 |
Foundations of Education | 0.156 |
French Language and Literature | 0.042 |
Gender Studies | 0.143 |
Genetics | 0.133 |
Geography | 0.088 |
Geological and Mining Engineering | 0.176 |
Geology/Earth Science, General | 0.19 |
Geophysics | 0.184 |
Germanic Languages and Literatures | 0.056 |
Health Professions, various | 0.096 |
Health Promotion, Kinesiology, Exercise Science and Rehab | 0.122 |
Health, Physical Education, Recreation | 0.083 |
Higher Education/Higher Education Administration | 0.159 |
History | 0.173 |
Horticulture | 0.153 |
Human and Medical Genetics | 0.132 |
Human Development and Family Studies, General | 0.181 |
Humanities/Humanistic Studies, General | 0.086 |
Immunology | 0.169 |
Industrial Engineering | 0.23 |
Information Science/Studies | 0.145 |
Information Technology/Information Systems | 0.088 |
International Affairs and Development | 0.151 |
Italian Language and Literature | 0.069 |
Languages, various | 0.051 |
Linguistics | 0.087 |
Management | 0.17 |
Management Information Systems | 0.096 |
Marine Sciences | 0.143 |
Marketing | 0.15 |
Mass Communications/Media Studies | 0.121 |
Materials Engineering | 0.24 |
Materials Science and Engineering | 0.29 |
Mathematics | 0.124 |
Mathematics Education | 0.148 |
Mechanical Engineering | 0.189 |
Medical Sciences, various | 0.093 |
Microbiology | 0.15 |
Molecular Biology | 0.126 |
Molecular Genetics | 0.114 |
Molecular Pharmacology | 0.117 |
Music specialties | 0.045 |
Music, General | 0.047 |
Natural Resources | 0.141 |
Near and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures | 0.099 |
Neurobiology/Neuroscience | 0.13 |
Nuclear Engineering | 0.217 |
Nursing | 0.137 |
Nutrition Sciences | 0.125 |
Oceanography, Physical Sciences | 0.155 |
Oncology and Cancer Biology | 0.057 |
Operations Research | 0.169 |
Oral Biology and Craniofacial Science | 0.087 |
Pathology | 0.064 |
Performing and Visual Arts, various | 0.053 |
Pharmaceutical Sciences | 0.072 |
Pharmacology | 0.08 |
Pharmacy | 0.071 |
Philosophy | 0.072 |
Physics, General | 0.158 |
Physiology, General | 0.091 |
Plant Pathology | 0.123 |
Plant Sciences | 0.129 |
Political Science | 0.192 |
Psychology, General | 0.197 |
Psychology, various | 0.205 |
Public Administration | 0.182 |
Public Health | 0.081 |
Public Policy | 0.197 |
Religion/Religious Studies | 0.093 |
School Psychology | 0.137 |
Science Education | 0.164 |
Slavic Languages and Literatures | 0.095 |
Social Sciences, various | 0.104 |
Social Work/Social Welfare | 0.117 |
Sociology | 0.18 |
Soil Science | 0.116 |
Spanish Language and Literature | 0.044 |
Special Education | 0.083 |
Speech and Hearing Sciences | 0.096 |
Statistics | 0.115 |
Structural Biology | 0.1 |
Systems Engineering | 0.25 |
Teacher Education Specific Levels | 0.057 |
Teacher Education Specific Subject Areas | 0.093 |
Theatre Literature, History and Criticism | 0.028 |
Theology/Theological Studies | 0.032 |
Toxicology | 0.081 |
Urban and Regional Planning | 0.118 |
Veterinary Medical Sciences | 0.135 |
Wildlife Science | 0.128 |
Zoology | 0.163 |
Sorted by the number of awards per faculty member (ascending), the fewest awards per person tend to be in humanities fields (theater, languages, etc.). At the other end of the list (sorted descending), the greatest number of awards per person tends to be in engineering disciplines, with some exceptions: Agricultural/Biological Engineering and Bioengineering, Consumer and Human Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering, Applied Physics, and Chemical Engineering.
It’s fascinating to see the distribution of honorific awards, but it calls into question how representative the data are – in other words, its possible that Academic Analytics happens to capture more awards in engineering than in humanities due to a previously unrecognized collection bias. It’s also possible that there are simply more awards available to engineers – maybe there are more scholarly societies who bestow awards in engineering fields? In any case, it’s clear that honorific awards, for which there exists no equivalent of a standard metadata description or widely-accepted unique ID number (such as DOI) should be interpreted in the context of both availability and potential collection biases.
We advocate the use of honorific awards as a post hoc indicator of research excellence (and sometimes precursors to research excellence, in the case of honors bestowed upon early career researchers), but we also caution that they are not as uniformly distributed nor standardized as bibliometric data or data about research grants. Our research is leading us towards creative solutions to these issues, and we welcome your thoughts.
Anthony J. Olejniczak, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC)