Analysis of the quality of a physics department focused on the research activity.

Ayala, Martha Pamela

Student Work

Analysis of the quality of a physics department focused on the research activity.

Public

An important factor to be considered in the analysis of the quality of the physics department is the research activity. Data on Brandeis University, Clark University, Lehigh University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan Tech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stevens Institute, Texas Christian University, University of Rochester and Worcester Polytechnic Institute was collected for analysis. Web of Science was used to obtain the information for the number of papers published after 1999, the number of citations, the number of papers published after 1990 and the maximum number of citations on a single paper. The studied data states a direct relationship between the quality of the physics department and the number of physics faculty members. This study focused on the research activity of each analyzed school as a quality measure. The number of published papers increases exponentially as the number of faculty members increased. The only exception is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an extremely large department. Therefore, an increase in department size may lead to a substantial increase in department research productivity, and conversely.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator