Perceived quality and methodology in graduate department ratings: Sociology, political science, and economics
Perceived quality and methodology in graduate department ratings: Sociology, political science, and economics
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研究生院系评级的感知质量和方法：社会学、政治学和经济学
DOI：
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
K. Bollen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Pamela Paxton;K. Bollen
研究生院评级有助于塑造研究生院在其所在大学的权力和特权，以及在其学科的其他部门。理想的情况是，这种评级将反映人们对一个部门质量的看法。然而，频繁的批评表明，评级远未达到这一理想。作者分析了三个相关学科--社会学、政治学和经济学--的主观评级，以及两个评级来源：国家研究理事会和《美国新闻与世界报道》。他们假设了三个主要组成部分的评级：（1）感知部门的质量，（2）系统误差，由于数据收集方法，和（3）随机测量误差。通过使用结构方程模型，他们发现20%到30%的评分变化来自系统误差，其余大部分来自感知质量，最小的成分是随机测量误差。作者还发现，人均引用次数、部门规模、公共/私人地位和地理位置等变量通过对感知质量和/或进入评级的系统错误的影响来影响评级。
Graduate department ratings help to shape the power and privilege of a graduate department at its home university, as well as with respect to other departments in its discipline. Ideally, such ratings would reflect the perceived quality of a department. Yet frequent critiques suggest that the ratings fall far short of this ideal. The authors analyzed subjective ratings in three related disciplines-sociology, political science, and economics-and from two rating sources: the National Research Council and U.S. News and World Report. They hypothesized three major components to the ratings: (1) perceived departmental quality, (2) systematic error owing to the method of data collection, and (3) random measurement error. Using structural equation modeling, they found that 20 percent to 30 percent of the variation in ratings derives from systematic error, most of the rest comes from perceived quality, and the smallest component is random measurement error. The authors also found that variables, such as citations per capita, departmental size, public/private status, and geographic location, influence ratings through their impact on perceived quality and/or the systematic errors that enter the ratings.