Community Identity: Peer Prestige and Academic Hiring in the iSchools

Exploring indicators of prestige in hiring networks as they relate to measures of prestige presented in peer ratings provides a new perspective on hiring and identity in the iSchools. This study examines a hiring network for the iSchool community and finds that the perception of prestige among iSchools, as represented by the US News & World Report (USNWR) graduate school ratings, may be improved by hiring choices that strengthen connections within the iSchool community, balanced by increasing the diversity of sources for new faculty. We compare the academic hiring network for the more establish Computer Science discipline to the recently emergent iSchools to explore the relationship between peer prestige and community identity. We also discuss additional observations from the data relating to the interdisciplinary diversity of the iSchool community. Topics Nature and scope of iSchools and iResearch