Do you want to know how you compare to other job applicants in ecology? Here are the publication rates for all applicants to our 2013 tenure-track faculty position in ecology. These include only peer-reviewed publications. Publications on which the applicant was first- or senior-author are often given greater weight in job searches, so they are highlighted in the first graph. The second graph includes all peer-reviewed publications, regardless of ranking in the authorship order.
Keep in mind that these are the data for all applicants. The applicants who were selected for interviews had about twice the number of first/senior-authored publications than would be expected based on their PhD year.
Of course, quality of publications was strongly considered as well, and that is not included in these graphs. About half the applicants had one or more first/senior-authored papers in highly-ranked journals such as Science, Nature, Ecology, Ecology Letters, or American Naturalist.
Our applicant pool was much smaller for this year than usual. We were granted the faculty position late in the job season, so we advertised later than most other institutions.
