How do signals of academic performance vary across disciplines? Evidence from a survey experiment among university professors in Germany

Abstract

While recent research has investigated what signals of academic performance govern academics' access to professorships, whether the power of such signals varies across disciplines has to date hardly been examined. We argue that the signaling power of academic achievements depends on the discipline-specific degree of standardization of research and on the spatio-temporal universality of research objects. Using a factorial survey experiment with Germany-based university professors of German studies, selected social sciences, and chemistry, we investigate the suitability of fictitious candidates for a tenured professorship (Nrespondents = 874, Nvignettes = 6354). Across disciplines, we find that the formal qualification, publications and citations, and teaching experience are of primary importance for being considered suitable for a professorship, whereas international experience and connectivity are less important. Cross-level interaction analyses based on the responding professors' discipline reveal that the formal qualification is valued most in German studies and least in chemistry. For third-party funding, we find the opposite pattern. International publications and citations are similarly important in the social sciences and in chemistry, but less important in German studies. Teaching experience is rewarded equally in all disciplines. In sum, our study provides first systematic evidence for the German academic system of how the signaling power of academic achievements varies across the humanities, social, and natural sciences.