Measuring Quality in Communication Doctoral Education Using Network Analysis of Faculty-Hiring Patterns

This research examines the prestige of doctoral degree programs in communication based on a network analysis of program links among 102 doctoral programs and 2,194 tenure-track faculty members. University of Wisconsin–Madison (Journalism & Mass Communication), Michigan State University (Communication), University of Texas-Austin (Communication Studies), and University of Illinois (Speech Communication) are the top four programs in terms of placement centrality in communication. Centrality of programs in this network, measured by out-degree, closeness centrality, and eigenvector indices, is positively related to subjective prestige ratings of faculty and department chairs (Neuendorf, Skalski, Atkin, Kogler-Hill, & Perloff, 2007). Faculty size was also related to network centrality and interdisciplinarity of program. Further, centrality of programs is positively related to program prestige controlling for faculty size.