The Past Two Decades of Undergraduate Research J a m e s N. Spencer and Claude H. Yoder Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster. PA 17604 Our initial survey of undergraduate research suggested a relationship between research activity and the number of students who go on to obtain the PhD i n chemistry (1). We have continued (2) to monitor the progress i n research activity and PhD production a t undergraduate institutions. We have used the Chemical Abstracts Data Base as accessed through Bibliographic Retrieval Services to obtain the number of publications from 1977 to January 1993 for those schools that had more than eight puhlications for the decade covered by our original survey. Those schools (Dmry College, Ithaca College, Newberry College, and Simmons College) that were identified as having significant research activity but not meeting the criteria for iuclusion i n the original survey also were included i n the pres e n t study. T h e s e a r c h s t r a t e g y identified: ( a ) a l l publications listed under the institution name, (b) all publications having the chemistry department affiliation, and (c) all publications that were not identified as originating from chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, biology, and psychology. Those citations listed i n the third group (c) were scrutinized by title, author, and journal to determine which were a result of work done in chemistry. This number was added to the number clearly identified a s originating from the chemistry department. We believe that the resulting numher of publications is reasonably accurate in spite of ambiguities i n the third group and errors i n the data base. The number of PhD's with baccalaureate origins a t each institution was obtained from Franklin and Marshall's latest compilation based on a data base provided by the National Research Council. The numher of faculty in each department was obtained from our original survey and may he in error even though we believe that the size of most departments has remained relatively constant over the past decade. The table gives (1) the number of publications from 1977 ta January, 1993, hereafter referred to as the 1977-1992 period, (2) the average number of publications per year for the 1977-
1992 time period,
146
Journal of Chemical Education
(3) the number of publications far the 1970-1979 period reported earlier ( I ) , (4) the average number of publications per year for the ear-
lier period, the difference between the average number of publications for the 1977-1992 period and the average number of publications for the 1970-1979 period, (6) the average number of publications per faculty member for the 1977-1992 period, and (7) the number of PhD's with baccalaureate origins at each institution for the 1920-1990 and the 1981-1990 time periods. (5)
Inspection of the column containing the difference in puhlication rates for the two time periods shows that more than half of the institutions have become less prolific in the 1977-1992 time period. When the institutions are ranked by number of publications during the earlier time period half of the institutions ranked i n the top half have a lower publication rate in the 1977-1992 period. For the institutions ranked i n the bottom half for the 1970-1979 period more than half (75%) have a lower publication rate in the 1977-1992 period. This is true also if the number of publications for the 1980-1985 period (2) are removed from the number for 1977-1992 to reflect primarily the most recent seven years and is consistent with the relative rates of publication noted in our 1987 update (2). Attempts to correlate the number of PhD's for the 19811990 period with the number of publications for each period resulted in correlation coefficients of less than 0.2. According t o o u r previous s t u d y t h e more significant correlation occurs between numher of faculty authors and number of PhD's ( I ) . Conclusion The conclusion that. i n general. undernaduate research has not accelwnwd iipili(:antly f a t least as nieasurvd by the number of ~ubllcatlonsi n ~the r D:W 10-15 year-a 1s ' a bit disconcerting given national promotion of undergraduate research by the Council of Undergraduate Research and the National Science Foundation in its RUI program.
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Publication Data Institutions
LafayetteIPA AmhersVMA HopeIMI Franklin & MarshalVPA Harvey MuddICA OberlinIOH WilliamsIMA Coigate UnivINY Pratl InstituteINY CalvinIMI SwarthmoreIPA BowdoinIME GrinnellIlA IthacdNY Coll. of WcosterIOH DrurylMO Lawrence UnivAnlI CanisiusINY HaverfordIPA BarnardlNY ColoradoICO St. OlafIMN GeHysburgIPA ReedIOR JuniataPA CarletonIMN OccidentalICA SimmonsIMA EarlhamIlN Denison UnivIOH NewberrylSC RhodesKNa FairlieldICT NiagardNY ColbyIME Univ of RedlandsICA Lebanon VaileyIPA Gustav AdolphusIMN WheatonIMA Ohio NorthernIOH Hobart & William SmithINY Pacific LutheranAnlA MacalesterIMN Wittenberg UnivIOH WartburgIlA WheatonIlL MarisINY WagnerINY CornellIlA MaryvillerrN Central UnivIlA
No. Pub. 1977-92
Pub.Nr. 1977-92
No. Pub. 1970-79
6 6 6 5 5 3 2 2 2 1 0
Pub.Nr 1970-79
No.PhDs No. 1981-90 Facultv
No. Pub./Fac. Diff. in Pub. IMember, Rate 177-92lvr 77-92 22.7 13.8 12.7 12.3 11.4 11.8 10.5 8.2 8.0 10.0 7.2 8.2 8.9 8.0 4.7 5.6 14.0 6.6 3.1 4.8 5.6 3.5 3.6 4.0 4.9 5.2 4.3 3.4 3.0 5.7 2.3 8.0 3.2 1.7 2.8 2.6 3.2 1.8 1.7 2.7 1.o 1.o 0.9 1.1 1.o 1.7 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.5
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'Rhodes College previously Southwestem at Memphis.
Acknowledgment The authors are indebted to tance with t h e project.
Literature Cited Morrissey
for
1. Spencer, J.N.:Yoder, C. H.J Chem Educ. 1981.58.780. 2. Yoder. C. D.:Spencer, J.N. J. Chrm. Edue. 1987. M. 163.
Volume 72 Number 2
February 1995
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