Research Funding, Experience, and Seniority in Academia

Research funding as a measure of faculty productivity has not been incorporated into previous studies of academic salary profiles. Here, we examine the effects of research funding, as well as publications, at a mid-sized, non-unionized, science and engineering-focused, American public university. Our conclusions are that research funding is more significant than publications in explaining salary differences for engineering and hard science faculty members; in contrast, only publications contribute to salary differences for faculty members in other disciplines. In addition, returns to seniority are generally nil or negative, which corroborate most other studies of this nature. Higher graduate and lower undergraduate student credit hour generation are associated with increased salaries in disciplines (in this case, engineering and the hard sciences) that have been expanding their graduate programs, but have no impact upon salaries in other disciplines.