dude, what happened to that nrc sociology ranking?

When I started teaching at IU, there was buzz about the NRC’s upcoming ranking of sociology doctoral programs. A few years later, maybe around 2006 or so, I remember filling out a survey form for the ranking. It’s now almost 2010 and I haven’t seen that survey come out. Google shows that most mentions of NRC and sociology concern the 1994 ranking. So, what’s up? Where’s the ranking? How hard can it be to cook up some stats on journal pubs? It’s now at the point that rankings based on a 2006 survey will be seriously out of date.

Bonus round: Here’s a neat 1987 article in the American Sociologist. It’s an interview with David Goslin on sociology and its relationship to the federal government.

Bonus round, part deux: A cool 2002 article  in Social Science Research by David Jacobs showing how ascriptive qualities and productivies both affect department ranking. In other words, being good and halo effects matter: “To see what factors explain departmental prestige ratings in sociology, this study assesses the effects of four ascriptive characteristics after holding departmental books, articles weighted by journal selectivity, citations, faculty size, and faculty rank constant. Departments in schools with “State,” “A & M,” or a direction in their name, departments with more female graduate students, and departments in urban public, largely commuter schools do worse on the NRC ratings. Departments with a few well-cited scholars receive lower scores than departments with comparatively equal citation counts across faculty, but departments from the three most prestigious Ivy League institutions receive stronger quality ratings after scholarly accomplishments have been held constant. The results show that both scholarship and ascription influence departmental prestige.”