DETROIT, January 2007 – The doctoral program at the Wayne State University College of Nursing has been ranked No. 5 in the nation according to the new Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, a ratings system produced by the New York-based for-profit firm Academic Analytics and financed in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The rankings were published in the Jan. 12 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In doing so, the WSU College of Nursing placed higher than many higher profile nursing programs, including those at Duke University, the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University. No other Michigan college or university made the Top 10.

Academic Analytics examined the output of faculty members at nearly 7,300 doctoral programs across the country, comparing the number of book and journal articles published, journal citations, awards, honors and grants received. The company’s first-year index was based on data gathered from 2005.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index is being viewed as a potential alternative to the traditional rankings compiled and published by U.S. News & World Report magazine, which have been the gold standard for evaluating graduate programs for decades.

“Unlike the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which are based primarily on reputation, this new system is based on hard data regarding faculty productivity,” notes Dr. Barbara K. Redman, dean of the WSU College of Nursing. “Because this ranking produces a different hierarchy of schools, its results and methodology are certain to be controversial. However, we view this as a validation of the emphasis we have placed on our doctoral program in recent years. We are, needless to say, delighted at the outcome.”

(The College of Nursing’s master’s program is ranked No. 28 in U.S. News & World Report; there is no corresponding ranking for doctoral programs.)

The Top 10 nursing doctoral programs in America, according to the Index, are: The University of Alabama at Birmingham; Emory University; the University of Pennsylvania; New York University; Wayne State; Duke University; the University of Rochester; the University of Wisconsin at Madison; the University of Kentucky and the University of Illinois at Chicago.