By: Shelby Steuart

Cambridge Press recently published a study completed by two researchers at the University of California, Irvine, ranking the 4,089 currently tenured or tenure-track political science faculty in American PhD-granting departments. Several of SPIA’s political science and public administration professors are included.

Keith Poole and Larry O’Toole are both included in the top 100 most frequently cited faculty members in political science. Keith Poole, Larry O’Toole, and Hal Rainey are listed among the top 25 most frequently cited faculty members who received their PhDs between 1975 and 1979. Cas Mudde is listed among the top 25 most cited faculty members who received their PhDs between 1995 and 1999. Keith Poole is ranked in the top 25 most frequently cited in the “American Politics” category and Larry O’Toole is ranked in the top 25 most cited in the “Public Policy, Public Administration, Public Law, and Political Psychology” category. Hal Rainey is also ranked in the top 25 most cited in the “International Relations” category.

Dean Matthew Auer explains that this is an exciting finding because it shows the extent of SPIA’s research impact. “Citation rates tell us something about scholarly influence and impact. In Kim and Grofman’s study, it is gratifying to see four faculty members from SPIA in a variety of ‘most-cited’ categories, including the ‘top 100.’ Strikingly, faculty from all three of SPIA’s academic departments are mentioned.”