The Academic Elite in SixSocial Science Disciplines: Linkages Among Top-Ranked Graduate Departments

In 1981 the National Academy of Sciences initiated an evaluation by faculty of the quality of doctoral programs in the social sciences. Changing Times listed the top ten percent of all graduate programs in the social sciences based upon a combination of two variables from the National Academy study which the magazine believed constituted the best measures of program quality. Given the subjective nature of the evaluation process which produced these ratings, and the mass media's infatuation with these rankings, this paper examines the top-rated graduate programs in six social science disciplines based upon criteria established in the Changing Times article. It was found that departments in each discipline were substantially linked to each other by hiring each other's graduates, and hence, enhancing each other's reputations.