ASU doctoral faculty have kept busy, earning three of ASU's doctoral programs a place among the nation's best, according to a recent study.
The company Academic Analytics rates individual doctoral programs across the U.S. to produce the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.
The FSPI ranked ASU's kinesiology and exercise sciences, and marketing programs ninth, and the physical sciences and mathematics fifth in the nation.
But Maria Allison, University vice provost and dean of graduate studies at ASU, said the methodology FSPI officials use to produce the rankings is slightly flawed.
"They collect their data about faculty from Web sites," Allison said. "They go to the curriculum vitae and someone counts what the faculty member has done."
She said using Web sites is not accurate because some faculty members don't put all their work on their vitae and don't always keep their vitae up to date.
FSPI officials look at the rate of scholarly output, or number of book and journal articles published, by faculty members at nearly 7,300 doctoral programs at 354 colleges and universities to determine the rankings, according to the Academic Analytics Web site.
They also look at journal citations, awards, honors and grants received.
Arizona's other major universities also found a place in the new FSPI. UA was ranked in six different doctoral programs, five of which were in the top five, and NAU was rated the 17th best small research university in the country.
Allison said despite UA's track record, people should not judge ASU based on the other in-state universities.
"ASU has made incredible strides to improve its quality," she said. "Academically, [ASU and UA] support each other because it's in the best interest of the state. There is plenty of room in Arizona for two high-level universities."
Urban planning graduate student Markus Roznowski said students should not use rankings to determine what graduate program they will attend.
"There are a lot of factors in choosing a graduate program," Roznowski said. "Family, time, cost and how applicable to your professional life after academia all play a role in determining what school is right for you."
Bree McEwan, a communication graduate student, said reputation should not be what determines where a student will attend graduate school.
"Departments change internally constantly," she said. "You should meet the faculty personally and check out the college and program."
Academic Analytics isn't the only organization aiming to provide their input of how university research programs stack up to one another.
Allison said she thinks the National Research Council, which ranks programs based on data gathered over long periods of time, is a more accurate ranking system.
The NRC releases its rankings approximately every 10 years, Allison said. The last NRC ranking was released in 1995, and the next one is expected in 2008, she said.
Allison said the amount of time between releasing the rankings sparks skepticism from a lot of people.
"ASU is a very different place than it was in 1995," she said. "I fully expect to do much better in the rankings this time. We have an incredibly strong faculty and doctoral program that is getting better all the time."
A collaboration between the NRC and Academic Analytics would create the most dignified rating system, Allison said.
"To me, the best assessment would be for the NRC and Academic Analytics to combine to create a system that is of really high quality," she said
Regardless of the abundance of ratings, Allison said ASU officials do not look at what each individual organization has to say about their doctoral research programs.
"We take the opportunity to review and assess the quality of programs we provide to students," Allison said. "We work with each department on a regular basis to make sure what graduate programs provide are of the highest quality."
Reach the reporter at: gary.levison@asu.edu.
