Research that is publishable in the top academic journals, where it will have the most scholarly and reputational impact, often necessitates five things before being further considered: important questions, interesting data, properly designed studies, rigorous analyses and high-quality writing.
Additionally, the research must also tell a compelling story and help advance the literature in that area, which usually requires a novel finding. Publishing in top-tier journals is challenging, to say the least. It is an incredibly time-consuming process in order to make a significant contribution to the field. Research published in top journals is a valuable but difficult to achieve goal for the College -- one that requires a great deal of our time, talent, and funding resources.
Our faculty who conduct research embrace the challenges of publishing at the highest levels, even though, on any given day, it's easier to find reasons not to work on research. Perseverance is key when working toward successful publication in top-tier journals, which often take multiple rounds of revision with reviewers and editors being critical of the work throughout the process. Indeed, it is easier to recommend rejecting a manuscript under consideration than to provide detailed and helpful feedback on potential improvements for the author(s). From this detailed feedback and editorial guidance, revisions are made so as to improve the contribution. The changes are often documented in a separate document that only the reviewers and editors see explaining how changes were made or why they were not made. Sometimes, responding to reviewer comments leads to a response document that is longer than the manuscript itself!
Thus, there is an entire “behind the scenes'' effort involved in gaining acceptance at top-tier journals. (Much of this is done after the bulk of the research was done.) All that said, it is also very difficult to publish in good journals that are outside of what the field considers “top-tier.” Many of these “good” journals have similar criteria as the top-tier, often with the goal of being recognized as a top-tier journal themselves. The point is that publishing research in high-quality outlets is not easy. This is a precious resource but one in short supply.
In June, Notre Dame was welcomed into the American Association of Universities (AAU), a consortium of the nation’s leading research universities, in recognition of our progress as a research university. This significant achievement is a result of the University’s sustained focus on research, which was embraced and accelerated by Father Hesburgh who, among many things, established a research library and increased research funding by a factor of 20. The focus on research is deeply rooted in the College’s history as well, as evidenced by the mission statement created by Dean Jack Keane, which read in part: “Our quest is to advance knowledge through distinguished scholarship and research balanced with inspirational teaching and spirited service.”
The University’s new strategic plan states, “Notre Dame must be the leading global Catholic research university, on par with but distinct from the world’s best private universities.” The threat to Notre Dame fulfilling this vision is complacency – a point made during the recent President’s Address to Faculty in which Provost McGreevy interviewed the President of the AAU and Duke’s longtime provost. Although our research is strong and our prominence growing, we cannot rest on our laurels.
The best private universities in the world are the universities with top researchers. These top researchers are thought leaders in their fields and bring their knowledge and what they have contributed to the field into their classrooms. Mendoza aims to be on par with the best business schools in the world and that means we must have the research bonafides that come from thought leaders contributing new findings to existing fields. In fact, Mendoza’s strategic plan has as its first stated goal to “elevate the quality and quantity of impactful research with relevance to business and society.” Mendoza is thus well-aligned with the University’s goals.
Fulfilling our research mission requires that we hire promising tenure-track faculty in every open assistant professor position or already impactful researchers in tenured positions. Recruiting, hiring and retaining top faculty talent is an ongoing challenge. Conducting faculty searches every year is not the problem: The problem is that every year top schools have searches! We are thus in a competition year in and year out with the best schools in the country.
For senior faculty hires, usually, there has to be a push from one’s home university and a pull to attract someone to Notre Dame. These researchers are likely already well-ensconced at their home university and potentially deeply embedded in their communities. Just how hard it is to find and then hire top researchers has been one of the most humbling aspects of my role as senior associate dean for faculty and research. Even if Notre Dame is thought of highly by these faculty, even getting to the point of an offer takes considerable effort as we do not want to offer a position to someone unless we are comfortable that they will contribute in meaningful ways. Some hires have taken years of engagement and there is a natural cycle to the hiring cycle closely tied to the academic year.
A successful research program also requires the use of data in most cases, and accessing high-quality data is another ongoing challenge. At Mendoza, faculty primarily use data from one or more of the following four sources: data vendors that sell archival data, the Mendoza Behavioral Lab, our Data Science Team (e.g., scraping data from online), and partnerships with firms.
Each data source carries a considerable cost, either monetarily or in effort. Maintaining a behavioral lab requires a full-time professional to manage all aspects of the training, equipment, pay-for-participation; to oversee the institutional review board approval for human subjects research; to work with faculty who require lab participation of students in certain classes; to partner with faculty to ensure the methods implemented are those necessary for the project: and to run the studies themselves and with a team of research assistants.
Our Data Science Team often is involved when we collect our own data. The team consists of three professionals who work one-on-one with faculty to understand and then implement their unique data needs, often requiring data engineering skills combined with an understanding of the particulars of the research question and data structures. These types of collaborations between faculty and our Data Science Team can lead to more novel datasets for publications. Such efforts are a competitive advantage, as not all universities have such resources available. Alternatively, we can purchase data from data vendors, which is expensive. In the past five years, the College has spent $1.88 million on datasets for research, some of which are also used for teaching. Even using data from firms is not easy. That often takes a champion in the upper echelons of the company as well as legal and non-disclosures agreements.
Our efforts to improve research have been tremendous, and so, too, has been our success. We will continue to invest heavily in research and we will not become complacent. Our faculty of 150 members consists of 90 tenured, tenure-track, and research professors. Each of our departments is deeply committed to research and I work closely with the department chairs to hire the best researchers that we can for each opening.
I am immensely appreciative of the effort of the department chairs, search committees, and department faculty for their deep engagement when candidates are on campus. For almost every opening, we winnow down more than 100 applications to a small number of viable candidates who are brought to campus to give a research talk and in-person interviews. These campus visits involve substantial faculty time and effort putting our best foot forward. Arrangements are graciously made by our departmental administrative assistants, creating as easy of a visit for our candidates as possible.
The amount of time we devote to hiring faculty is considerable, but it is of the utmost importance, as making the wrong hire can be incredibly costly. Every open position is an opportunity to elevate our research and departments by bringing in thought leaders. As former Provost Tom Burish would say, “No university can be better than its faculty.” The world is always changing. Our students need to be influenced by those at the forefront of the various disciplines that combine to form a holistic program with formative experiences and innovation throughout.
Ken Kelley
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Edward F. Sorin Society Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
