The Character of Published Scholarship by Top Ranked African American Faculty in U.S. Social Work Programs.

Abstract

Purpose: This article examines the publication productivity of the (N = 14) top-ranked U.S. Black/African American scholars in the U.S. News and World Report Schools of Social Work, as identified by Huggins-Hoyt, Holosko, Briggs, and Barner (2015).

Method: Publication information for each participant were taken from the Publish or Perish software site with an "author impact" search criteria that examined their lifetime publication history.

Results: Results suggested that these authors: (a) published collaboratively, (b) published highly on issues pertaining to Black/African American inequality, and (c) published in journals with both high-impact scores and high-impact readership.

Findings: Despite the low numbers of Black/African American scholars serving as full professors in U.S. colleges and universities, the techniques they used to circumvent systematic and structural academic barriers provide helpful tips that younger Black/African American scholars could employ when writing and publishing their research findings. However, additional research is needed to further unearth differences, and/or expectations, based on numerous variables, which includes but not limited to: (a) academic rank, (b) funded research,