The Price of an Administrative Career: Academic Productivity of Rectors before and after Appointment

Abstract

How does the structure of the rector's publications change after their appointment? While the socio-demographic characteristics of university leaders, as well as their impact on the effectiveness of the university as an organization, have been studied previously, the literature is scarce regarding studies of the “administrative burden’s” impact on changes in rectors’ publication profile. In this study, based on data on the publications of Russian rectors, the author analyzes changes in rector publication activity. Based on theoretical assumptions about the factors that can influence publication dynamics, the results of the analysis show that: 1) the academic productivity of the rector is significantly positively associated with the share of articles written by the rector himself and articles written in co-authorship with scientists affiliated with different organizations, and is also negatively related to the share of articles in institutional co-authorship (all authors are affiliated with the same organization); 2) each additional year in office increases the share of articles in all types of co-authorships, as well as the total number of articles published per year. The results show that being in the office has a significant impact on the publication profile of the rectors in Russian universities, in particular, there is evidence that the administrative burden pushes the rectors to write articles in co-authorship.

Acknowledgements. The data was collected with the support of the Economic Policy Fund (Research Project 1-170521); data update, analysis, and preparation of the article were supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 21-78-10102.