African American Faculty in Social Work Schools: The Impact of Their Scholarship.

Abstract

Purpose: This study assessed the citation impact of scholarship of African American faculty in the top 25 ranked schools of social work cited in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report.

Method: The citation impact scores (Hirsch h-index) of these scholars were examined.

Results: The overall mean h-index score for the top 25 ranked schools of social work and African American scholars was 6.62 and 12.14, respectively. The individual h-index for almost 80% of these scholars exceeded their respective school mean h-index scores.

Discussion: While the literature revealed long-standing systemic and structural barriers to research productivity for African American scholars overall, these faculty somehow found ways to circumvent these challenges. Future research calls for a more comprehensive exploration into the character and impact of scholarship produced by African American faculty to further expand the knowledge base about elements of research cultures in social work.