VOL. 23, NO. 10	NOVEMBER 21, 1997

he faculty of Columbia's School of Social Work authored more journal articles and book reviews—126 during the period 1990-1993—than the faculty of any other School of Social Work, according to a report in the Fall 1997 issue of the Journal of Social Work Education. The School of Social Work was also cited as one of less than a dozen schools that showed a "balanced" record of articles published both within and outside of the social work profession.

  "These findings are but one illustration of the exceptionally high caliber of the faculty here at the School of Social Work," Dean Ronald A. Feldman said. "Our professors, whether they are teaching and advising, conducting research or consulting with public and private organizations, play a major role in ensuring that the School remains at the forefront of professional training."

  Authors Robert G. Green, Frank R. Baskind, Al M. Best and A. Suzanne Boyd reviewed more than 1,700 articles and book reviews for their study, "Getting Beyond the Productivity Gap: Assessing Variation in Social Work Scholarship." Responding to the authors' query, 45 of the 47 schools of social work with doctoral programs provided the names of full-time faculty with professorial rank, resulting in a sample of 1,069 individual faculty. A comprehensive search was then conducted to identify full-length articles published between Jan. 1, 1990 and Sept. 30, 1993.

  Columbia faculty published 126 pieces during this period, surpassing by 20 percent the second ranked school, the University of Washington, and the third-ranked, the University of Michigan, by 22 percent. Columbia led the fourth ranked school, U.C.-Berkeley, by 68 percent. Of the 126 articles and reviews published by Columbia faculty, 74 appeared in social work publications and 52 in non-social work publications, a remarkably balanced distribution.

  The authors concluded by noting that further similar studies "will provide opportunities to validate the framework and perhaps to observe changing patterns of scholarship."

  Ultimately, they suppose, observations "could provide useful information about the critical link between the profession's practice and the scholarship of the professional schools."