Academic Analytics

Academic Analytics provides data for research/scholarly activity benchmarking and discovery by collecting publicly available scholarly data (including publications, citations, and external funding) on individual faculty members, combining the data by program, department and unit, and comparing it to equivalent information from similar programs in the same discipline at other universities.

The Academic Analytics database includes information on over 240,000 faculty members associated with more than 10,000 PhD programs, 12,000 departments at over 463 Ph.D. granting universities throughout the U.S.  Academic Analytics classifies faculty members into approximately 170 disciplines, based on the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Classification of Instructional Programs (CIPS) code.

Academic Analytics uses the individual faculty member as the “unit of analysis” and thereby can provide a research/scholarly profile for individual faculty members as well as their collaborative network.

Levels of access are determined by the unit/office l based on the following guideline.

Access is provided to the online portal through a single sign-on using your UBIT credentials. 

If you would like to be credentialed, request analyses or reports, contact Melinda Whitford.

Academic Analytics requires training prior to portal access. 

• Initial training will be scheduled with Melinda Whitford (see contact card above)
• Additional training sessions are scheduled throughout the year.  See schedule of current trainings below.

• All trainings are via Zoom.
• To register for a session or request individual (1 on 1) trainings, contact Melinda Whitford.
  

• Departmental and programmatic evaluation and expansion
• Departmental peer comparisons and benchmarking
• Evaluation of new program proposals
• Analysis of potential disciplinary faculty hires
• Identification of new research funding sources
• Identification of potential faculty funding sources and honorific awards
• Publication strategy development
• Understanding PhD graduate outcomes
• Showcasing faculty accomplishments

Research Insight portal assists administrators in identifying and bring together subject matter experts by searching beyond department, program, or even institutional boundaries to quickly and easily form strong research teams.  Additionally potential funding and honorific awards can be identified for individual faculty.

Uses

• View full scholarly research profile for individual faculty
• Identifies experts on specific topics to build collaborative research teams
• Finds suitable honorific awards for UB faculty
• Discovers funding opportunities in particular research areas
  
  

Audience

• Academic Administrators:  Vice Provosts, Deans, Associate Deans for Research and Department Chairs, and unit designees.

Alumni Insight portal provides outcome information on PhD graduates for the last ten years.  This includes, employers, job titles, job locations as well as estimated salaries.  Users can review record level data for PhD alumni in the portal.

Uses

• Utilize graduate PhD outcomes for program review

Audience

• Academic Administrators:  Vice Provosts, Deans, Associate Deans for Research and Department Chairs, Graduate Program Directors and unit designees.

An evolving repository of interactive, custom analyses directly accessible from the portal.  Analyses are developed through partnerships with client stakeholders

Uses

• Supports award nomination strategies
• Explores the research trajectory of early career faculty and faculty movement across institutional categories
• Identify highly research active faculty
• Explores disciplinary research trend
• Compares faculty demographics at the unit level with peers

Audience

• Academic Administrators:  Vice Provosts, Deans, Associate Deans for Research and Department Chairs, and unit designees.

More to Come!

Who is included in the Faculty Roster?

• The faculty roster is compiled by the Office of Institutional Analysis in early spring.  All tenure-track & tenured faculty who have UB appointments on November 1^st of the previous fall semester are included. Additionally, qualified faculty where the unit has determined they have significant involvement with PhD programs in the unit are added in consultation with unit leadership.
• Department assignments is determined by primary appointment.  Additional department assignment can be made if faculty have multiple appointments and as deemed appropriate by unit leadership.
• Additional program assignments can be made if faculty are involved in PhD programs outside their primary department/program as deemed appropriate by unit leadership.
• Units are asked to review the faculty roster prior to submission to Academic Analytics.  Modifications can be made throughout the academic year as needed.

• The Scholarly Research Index is a metric that provides comparative context for faculty or unit research activity compared to discipline peers.  The SRI is a composite score or Z-score of the summed weighted ranks for each faculty member within the discipline.

What Is Counted in Academic Analytics?

• Academic Analytics uses multiple scholarly research productivity to make peer comparisons with a default time window.  Data coverage can be found under the Resources tab in the portal.
• Grants (5-year window)
  • Research Articles (4-year window)
  • Citations (5-year window)
  • Conference Proceedings (4-year window)
  • Books (10-year window)Book Chapters (4-year window)
  • Clinical Trials (5-year window)
  • Patents (10-year window)
  • Honorific Awards (varies by award)

What is Not Counted in Academic Analytics?

• Book Citations
• Art displays or performances
• Contests
• Instructional teaching loads
• Service

Why is an article missing from a faculty scholarly research profile?

• All publishers that assign a digital object identified (DOI) to article content and submit to CrossRef are included.  While a DOI is required for inclusion, it is possible for a journal that assigns DOIs to not appear in the dataset if they have opted out of sharing content with CrossRef.
• While some journals assign DOIs to all entries, Academic Analytics excludes non-article content from benchmarking.  Classifications are article, book review, other (letters to/from the editor, editorials, interviews, working papers).

Why not use Google Scholar citation counts?

• Citations to journal articles are also obtained from CrossRef.  This allows for consistent and stable comparisons.  Citation count comparisons with Google Scholar should be avoided.  Google Scholar will count citations from additional types of scholarship that are excluded from Academic Analytics counts.

What are the guidelines for external use of peer/benchmarking analysis?

• In order to reference peer rankings for external use, the following guidelines should be used.
  
  • It is okay to say that UB discipline is ranked in the top x0 (in units of ten as a minimum, 10, 20, 30, 40 etc.) or university/disciplines in the US based on the SRI and is in the company of universities a, b, and c in this ranking (no more than 3)
  • It is also okay to say that you are ranked in the top x) (10, 20, 30, 40, etc) for a discipline based on a particular metric (e.g. grant $$/faculty member) provided the variable is stated.
  • It is NOT permissible to state that Academic Analytics ranks your university or discipline as better than named universities.  This includes naming of groups (such as AAU) and geographic locations (such as all of New York).
• For more information, Contact – Melinda Whitford
  

Can I get access to the Comparative Benchmarking Portal?

• Access to the Comparative Benchmarking Portal is currently provided to Vice Provost, Deans, Associate Deans, and Department Chairs.  Contact your unit leadership to request access.

How do I request a special analysis or report, or an answer to a specific query?

• Contact – Melinda Whitford