Scholarly collaboration and productivity patterns in public administration: Analysing recent trends

Previous studies have confirmed the interdisciplinary nature of the field of public administration (Mosher 1956; Ventriss 1991; Forrester 1996; Rodgers and Rodgers 2000; Schroeder et al. 2004) and encouraged the exploration of one important indicator of interdisciplinarity: research collaboration. One way that collaboration patterns are explored is through the study of co-authorship among faculty members (Smart and Bayer 1986; Forrester 1996; Katz and Martin 1997). In the field of public administration, studies on co-authorship and productivity of scholars are sparse. In this article, we use bibliometric data to explore collaboration patterns as they relate to productivity levels and quality of publications within the field of public administration. Our study finds that more productive scholars, as well as those with the highest impact, are less likely to collaborate than their colleagues. Our results also indicate that there are gender differences in collaboration patterns and productivity within the field of public administration.