SUCCESSFUL AND LESS-SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PERFORMANCE OF JUNIOR FACULTY

In academic medical centers, there is increasing concern about the dim inishing supply of clinical investigators and the amount of clinical i nvestigation being conducted. This study developed and evaluated an in strument designed to measure characteristics of a successful researche r. All assistant professor faculty in the tenure track at this researc h university were sent a two-page survey. Analyses revealed that 50 pe rcent of the items significantly discriminated successful and less-suc cessful researchers. A factor analysis of these items produced four st able factors: research activities, mentoring, local networks, and scho larly habits. A backward stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that only two of the four factors were needed to effectively identify succe ssful researchers, These two factors were research activities and scho larly habits, The rate of correct classification of the two-factor equ ation was such that 92 percent of the successful researchers were corr ectly identified. Testing this instrument in other academic settings w ould help to determine its generalizability.