Geographers in the public square: A comparative analysis of op-ed productivity

This paper explores three questions. 1) How active are academics in the op-ed pages of American newspapers and how do geographers compare on this front? 2) Are there patterns that emerge among those geographers who have published commentaries in American newspapers in terms of their rank and gender? 3) Are there common themes or perspectives which emerge in the opinion pieces penned by geographers? These questions are answered by an analysis of newspaper op-eds published in the United States over the 2004–2008 period using the LexisNexis Academic database. Geography ranks sixth out of the seven disciplines measured in terms of the total number of op-eds published, yet fourth out of seven when the different sizes of disciplines are taken into account. Within geography, authors with the rank of full professor are the most likely to publish a commentary.