Daniel Lemire's blog

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Determinants of faculty research productivity

Should you hire Ph.D. graduates from top schools in your country? Maybe not:

The present analysis however dispels the notion that graduates of high-status doctoral programs in the discipline of information systems will become superior researchers. (…) The findings indicate that productive scholars were not heavily concentrated among a few elite universities with respect to their academic origins, and that graduates of middle-status doctoral programs were as productive as graduates of high-status programs in terms of both research quantity and quality, if not more so. (Long et al., Scientometrics 2009).

(Hint: There is no substitute for getting to know people.)

Further reading: Big schools are no longer giving researchers an edge? and Why are top universities losing their lead? (Andras, Charlton and Source: Science and Public Policy, 2009)