Nonlinear effects of teaching and consulting on academic research productivity

Abstract This study tests the proposition that moderate amounts of faculty time spent in the “non-research” roles of teaching and consulting are, in fact, facilitative of research productivity; and establishes values for the point at which such activities cease to have a facilitating effect. This was done by fitting continuous piecewise-linear regression models to 1980 data pertaining to a national sample of 5605 faculty. The study illustrates the effectiveness of piecewise-linear methods relative to polynomial techniques for problems of this kind and suggests that the former approach should be more prevalent. The results indicate that up to 4 hr p/wk of consulting and up to 8 hr p/wk of teaching are indeed facilitative of research productivity. Policy implications are discussed.

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