Publication output of swiss political science departments

Abstract

This article compares the scientific publication output and international academic visibility of Swiss political science departments, using three indicators (number of publications, number of citations, and the h-index) and publicly available data from two sources: the ISI Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar. We also examine whether the publication output of political science professors and postdoctoral researchers in Switzerland varies as a function of academic age. We observe rather strong variations both across and within departments. The analysis also shows that the most prolific professors tend to be those who completed their Ph.D. about 10-20years ago and that some postdocs are on a very promising publications trajectory. We derive some benchmarks for publication output that might be useful for hiring decisions or promotions. © (2010) Swiss Political Science Review.