The Department of Life Sciences Communication sits at the top of the most recent rankings released by Academic Analytics comparing national communication and media studies programs. LSC ranks among the top 10 departments for articles per faculty member, citations per faculty member, and number of awards per faculty member, as well as in the top 20 for percentage of faculty with a book publication — all despite being one of the smaller departments nationally.
“Although we are not a big department, these data continue to show we are one of the elite national research programs, complementing our teaching and outreach functions,” said LSC chair Dominique Brossard. “It is great to see rankings like this and know our hard work and expertise are paying off.”
Academic Analytics is a service many top research universities — including the University of Wisconsin–Madison — use to obtain high-quality data about their research enterprises. UW subscribes to the service to see which departments are most successful in research.
The company provides data on faculty metrics such as published articles, books, and citations. Although LSC ranks low nationally for faculty size, it consistently ranks within the top 10 or top 20 in these numerous metrics.
“We research and study a broad set of science and environmental communication issues that are relevant to the state, the nation and the world,” Brossard added. “It is great to see the world-class quality of our colleagues’ work represented in these rankings. With our rigorous pursuit of grants and research, we hope to keep growing and continue our tradition of excellence.”
A previous version of this article referred to specific rankings but that information has been removed based on restrictions by Academic Analytics about publicizing data concerning other institutions.