How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment

Table 5.2

Frequencies of mentions of generic and specific types of originality

Generic types (N

=

217)

Originalapproach

Freq.(%)

Understud-ied area

Freq.(%)

Originaltopic

Freq.(%)

Originaltheory

Freq.(%)

Originalmethod

Freq.(%)

Originaldata

Freq.(%)

Originalresults

Freq.(%)

New approach

(^5) (7)
Understud-ied region
(^7) (54)
New topic
(^9) (28)
New theory
(^5) (13)
Innovativemethod orresearchdesign
(^5) (19)
New data
(^15) (52)
Newinsights
(^5) (56)
New question
(^21) (31)
Understud-ied period
(^6) (46)
Non-canonicaltopic
(^20) (63)
Connecting/mapping ideas
(^12) (30)
Synthesisof methods
(^10) (37)
Multiplesources
(^10) (34)
Newfindings
(^4) (44)
New perspective
(^11) (16)
Topic choiceis unconven-tional
3 (9) Synthesis of
literatures
(^12) (30)
New useof old data
(^7) (26)
Non-canonicaldata
(^4) (14)
New approachto tired/trendytopic
(^10) (15)
New applica-tion of existingtheory
(^5) (13)
Resolve oldquestion ordebate
(^3) (11)
New connections
(^8) (12)
Reconceptual-izing
(^4) (10)
Innovativefor discipline
2 (7)
New argument
6 (9)
Unconven-tional use oftheory
2 (5)
Innovative forthe discipline
6 (9)
Total
67 (100)
13 (100)
32 (100)
40 (100)
27 (100)
29 (100)
9 (100)
Total as % ofall types
31
6
15
18
12
13
4
Source:
Guetzkow, Lamont, and Mallard (2004).
Specific types