Report H. A. Laitinen University of Florida Gainesville, Fia. 32604
Professional Status of Academic Analytical Chemistry In an article entitled "Reputational Ratings of Doctoral Programs" [Science, 199, 1310 (1978)], R. T. H a r t n e t t , M. J. Clark, and L. L. Baird, who are research psychologists at Ed ucational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J., examined doctoral programs in three fields in 25 institutions. This study differed from the surveys con ducted by the American Council on Education in 1964 and 1969 in cov ering a smaller number of institutions and programs in greater detail. T h e fields (chemistry, history, and psy chology) were chosen to permit a com parison of the ratings of subspecialties with those of the fields as a whole. In each discipline, each faculty respon dent was asked to rate the quality of the faculty in his or her own subspeci alty as well as in the whole depart ment in the institutions under study. T h e correlations of ratings of the subspecialties with the ratings of total programs are given in Table I. To quote the original article, "In chemis
try departments, a close relation be tween sub-specialty faculty ratings is also the usual case, but there is one glaring exception—analytical chemis try". An inquiry to Dr. H a r t n e t t led to the scatter diagram shown in Figure 1, in which it emerges t h a t four de p a r t m e n t s out of the 25 surveyed had high overall ratings but showed up poorly in analytical chemistry. Indeed, if these four were omitted in calculat ing a new Pearson correlation coeffi cient, the new value of r became 0.85. It is apparent t h a t the " n o r m a l " sit uation is for a good correlation be tween analytical chemistry and chem istry as a whole, but that a relatively few excellent chemistry departments have chosen to ignore or downgrade analytical chemistry as a graduate dis cipline. It might be remarked that sev eral d e p a r t m e n t s showing overall ex cellence are also outstanding in ana lytical, and t h a t in others analytical is relatively stronger than the depart
ment as a whole. This situation was clearly evident in the survey carried out by G. A. Rechnitz several years ago [ A N A L . C H R M . , 43 (4), 51A (1971)]
as well as t h a t of Janet Osteryoung in the current issue (page 849 A). T h e occasional noncorrelation be tween overall quality and excellence in analytical would be of little con cern, except t h a t several highly rated chemistry departments t h a t are weak in graduate analytical chemistry tend to serve as models for developing de partments. It appears to this writer t h a t there are two basic reasons why a few other wise excellent departments failed to develop strong analytical research programs. T h e first is t h a t analytical research, which deals with improve ments in methodology, can be ignored if research in other areas is content to use state-of-the-art methodology, i.e., to rely on others for its advancement. T h e other reason is that modern ana lytical chemistry is itself a complex
Table I. Correlations of Ratings of Subspecialties with Ratings of Total Programs, CGS/ETS Survey 1975. All Ratings Pertain to Quality of Faculty discipline and subspecialty
range in no. of raters a
Pearson Γ
chemistry analytical biochemical inorganic organic physical
15-33 11-39 35-63 80-121 70-151
0.40 0.94 0.94 0.98 0.98
history ancient medieval modern american third world
8-23 15-35 52-131 75-169 24-68
0.94 0.91 0.99 0.98 0.95
a Refers to the number of ratings supplied by respondents for the subspecialty faculty of a given institution. Thus, the analytical chemistry faculty of one institution was rated by 33 respondents, of another by 15.
852 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 50, NO. 9, AUGUST 1978
discipline and subspecialty
range in no. of raters' 3
Pearson r
psychology educational measurement personality developmental experimental organizational clinical social
1-4 1-6 6-19 9-40 64-168 7-18 26-97 21-72
0.79 0.91 0.88 0.85 0.98 0.54 0.78 0.88
(Reprinted with permission from Science. Copyright 1978 American Association tor the Advancement of Science.)
0003-2700/78/0350-852A$01.00/0 (c) 1978 American Chemical Society
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area with several subdisciplines, so to have a truly viable analytical program is difficult if a d e p a r t m e n t is strongly oriented around individual research programs of limited number. Of course, analytical advances are made by chemists of many types, and even without an identifiable analytical graduate program, a d e p a r t m e n t may be making significant contributions to analytical research. Conversely, an alytical chemists are making signifi cant contributions to other areas of chemistry through the use of their methodology. It comes down to a selfdefinition, in which a chemist chooses to associate professionally with col leagues of kindred interests. This as sociation takes various forms, such as joining professional societies or divi sions of them, choosing a publication medium, participating in research symposia, and the like. A given chem ist, of course, can have more than one professional identification such as an alytical chemistry plus spectroscopy, electrochemistry, chromatography, computers, etc. Despite this blurring of professional identities, analytical chemists do have a commonality in possessing at least an awareness of many diverse ap proaches to problem-solving, and their contribution consists of choosing the method or combination of methods
leading to the most efficient solution to the problem at hand. As pointed out by J a n e t Osteryoung, the analyti cal community has felt for the past several years t h a t it is gaining strength in graduate departments, and this feeling has been confirmed by her study. Correspondingly, the demand for P h D analytical chemists in indus try and government as well as academ ic institutions has grown in recent years to the point t h a t emerging P h D ' s in other areas of chemistry are belatedly discovering an interest in analytical. This is surely acceptable, provided t h a t the necessary diversity of background and experience and in terest in dealing with analytical prob lem-solving is present. J u s t because an organic chemist has had experience in interpreting IR, MS, or N M R spec t r a in identifying structures does not qualify him as an analytical chemist, unless he has the interest and compe tence to deal with impurities and mix tures. Likewise, the experimental physical chemist may or may not qual ify for an analytical-oriented position depending upon his a t t i t u d e and expe rience in analytically significant mea surements. It is said t h a t imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the analytical profession can take pride because it is growing by accretion as well as by internal nourishment.
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ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 50, NO. 9, AUGUST
1978 · 853 A
