Ideas Worth Merit
Mystic Inspiration of Effective Habits?
Reviewed By Dennis McDougall, Rhonda S. Black, James Skouge, & Garnett J. Smith
Volume 5 - Issue 3
Oct 17, 2007 - 10:30:11 AM

Although numerous and diverse publications address professors’ writing and research productivity, exceedingly few empirical studies report findings for interventions designed and implemented to increase professors’ research productivity. This study used an innovative mixed methods design with a concurrent triangulation strategy and methods from two research traditions that investigators rarely integrate - quantitative single-case interventions and qualitative inquiry. Processes and findings from this study illustrate how researchers can combine these methods to illuminate the how and why of changes in performance in participant-interventionist studies. In this study, university professors used goal setting and behavioral self-management techniques to increase their daily research productivity and the number of manuscripts they submitted to professional journals. Based on findings and existing literature, we identify practical habits that increase research productivity. This study extends the literature base that includes numerous descriptive articles and opinion pieces on many topics about scholarly productivity, but few intervention studies that report quantitative findings.

Key words: behavioral self-management, case study, goal setting, mixed methods, productivity, professors, qualitative, quantitative, research design, single-case, writing