New rankings based on faculty scholarly activity doctoral programs emphasizing agronomy and crop sciences at the UA ranked No. 1; entomology ranked No. 2 (including contributions from the UA’s Arizona Research Laboratory); botany and plant biology ranked No. 4 (shared with the UA College of Science); and nutritional sciences ranked No. 10. In the broader category of agricultural sciences, the UA was rated the No. 1 program in the country based on faculty productivity.

The rankings measure the productivity of individual faculty members based on publications completed, including books and journal articles published and cited, federal grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards received.

“In my view, faculty productivity is an excellent objective measure of the value of a department, program, etc. to the university,” said Eugene Sander, CALS dean and vice president for university outreach. “Since the ranking depends upon the papers published and grants received, I would argue that you do not get grants in this competitive environment or publish papers in the best journals if you aren’t a quality program.”

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index is created by Academic Analytics, a company partially owned by the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

“It is my goal that we will be one of America's 10 best public research universities,” said UA President Robert Shelton. “These measurements of scholarly productivity tell us that we are well on our way.”

Summary of Prominent UA Rankings for Scholarly Faculty Productivity

Note: These categories denote areas of study, not necessarily specific academic departments.

• Agricultural Sciences -- No. 1
• Communication -- No. 1
• Agronomy and Crop Sciences -- No. 1
• Entomology -- No. 2
• Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicinal Chemistry -- No. 3
• Botany and Plant Biology -- No. 4
• Nutrition -- No. 10