How does prolific professors influence on the citation impact of their university departments?

Abstract

Professors and associate professors ("professors") in full-time positions are key personnel in the scientific activity of university departments, both in conducting their own research and in their roles as project leaders and mentors to younger researchers. Typically, this group of personnel also contributes significantly to the publication output of the departments, although there are also major contributions by other staff (e.g. PhD-students, postdocs, guest researchers, students and retired personnel). The scientific productivity is however, very skewed at the level of individuals, also for professors, where a small fraction of the professors, typically account for a large share of the publications. In this study, we investigate how the productivity profile of a department (i.e. the level of symmetrical/asymmetrical productivity among professors) influences on the citation impact of their departments. The main focus is on contributions made by the most productive professors. The findings imply that the impact of the most productive professors differs by scientific field and the degree of productivity skewness of their departments. Nevertheless, the overall impact of the most productive professors on their departments’ citation impact is modest.