Relationship between faculty characteristics and research productivity

The purpose of this research was to identify the characteristics of the active research producer within dental schools. A survey was mailed to 4,901 full-time faculty members in 53 U.S. dental schools, of which 1,481 (31 percent) were returned. Faculty Research Productivity (FRP) was defined as the number of publications generated by a faculty member during his or her academic career, as reported in response to a survey question. Seventeen characteristics of faculty members also were obtained from responses to survey items. Using stepwise multiple regression, five variables predicted 38 percent of the variance in FRP: Interest in Research, Earned Ph.D., Number of Journal Subscriptions, Consulting Time Per Week, and Research Time Per Week. While the relationship between FRP and student contact time was linear (the more articles produced the less student contact time), time spent in teaching per week did not enter the prediction equation.