UWM School Nationally Ranked in Research Productivity

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Information Studies ranks among the top library and information science schools in the United States in scholarly productivity, according to a recent study published in Library & Information Science Research in October 2006.

"We are proud of the recognition, particularly because we were compared to information studies programs at colleges and universities that offer the doctoral level programs," says Thomas Walker, associate dean of the School of Information Studies. UWM is in the process of developing a doctoral program of its own and participates in collaborative doctoral programs at UWM, but currently only offers master's and bachelor's degrees. Under the leadership of Dean Johannes Britz, the school has developed a research profile (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SOIS/about/research/index.html) and is expanding its research interests in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa with multi-pronged collaborations.

The authors of the study, Denice Adkins and John Budd of the University of Missouri, covered the period from 1999-2004 and used a number of measures in developing the rankings. These included journal publications (UWM tied with UCLA for ninth; per capita journal articles by program (UWM ranked seventh), citations to faculty work (UWM ranked 15th), and per capita citations by program (UWM ranked 18th) in determining the top programs in the field.

Overall, UWM ranked 13th and was in company with such top national schools as Indiana, Rutgers, Tennessee and UCLA. The authors acknowledge that other factors such as good teaching and learning are important in measuring a program's impact but contend that scholarly productivity is one systematic way of measuring a school's effectiveness.

Dietmar Wolfram, an SOIS professor whose work focuses on information-searching behavior of internet users, was tied for ninth place among faculty of all schools for the total number of journal articles. Wolfram ranked 25th nationally in the total number of citations to his works.

The studies that SOIS scholars do on retrieving, storing and managing information and data is a fundamental underpinning of the knowledge economy and a good fit with UWM's emphasis on research, says Walker. "Like other schools and colleges at UWM, we're placing increased emphasis on research. As the doctoral program is developed, we anticipate our scholarly productivity will become even more impressive in coming years."