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This paper examines the effects of a scholar's position and gender on publishing productivity in several types of scientific publications: monographs, articles in journals, articles in edited books, and articles in conference proceedings. The data consist of 1,367 scholars who worked at the University of Helsinki, Finland, during the period 2002-2004. The analysis shows that professors are the most productive, PhDs publish more than non-PhDs, and men perform better than women, also when other scholarly characteristics are controlled for. These differences are greater for monographs and articles in edited books than for articles in journals. In terms of conference proceedings, no remarkable productivity differences were found.

The ability of universities to efficiently produce high-standard knowledge has become an important goal in science policies of many developed countries. Thus, many countries nowadays steer universities based on performance monitoring and competition. This article analyzes the connection between the competitiveness of the university funding environment and research performance in five OECD countries in 1987-2006. Besides funding, other science policy factors are analyzed using the framework of four state steering models. Results indicate that the university funding environment has become more competitive in all the compared countries, but the extent and pace of this development varies. Countries also differ in relation to steering models but all have employed policy elements typical of at least two models. In terms of competitive funding environment and research performance, there is no straightforward relationship between the two. With reference to the state steering models, the most traditional model which emphasizes university independence from the state seems to be the most beneficial to research performance. NOWLEDGE HAS BECOME an important resource for industry as an element of both products and production processes over the last couple of decades. This development is associated with the globalization of economy. The developed, industrialized countries have faced a challenge of maintaining their position in global economic competition. Universities have become key components of the economies of developed countries because they create knowledge and disseminate it to industry and wider society and provide the highest education to people. Because of the strategic significance of universities, their performance and costeffectiveness have become highly relevant issues to policy-makers (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997: 36-40).As a result, there is a strong science policy trend that emphasizes the research performance of the university sector. Competition for money and other financial incentives are often used as steering instruments, since funding is regard as having a strong impact on the behaviour of universities which are dependent on resources from other organizations such as state agencies (Hackett, 1990; Nieminen, 2005: 124-125). However, this development is not uniform across countries. Also the long-term usefulness for and impacts of funding incentives and competition on university research are still unclear.In this article, we analyze the connection between the funding and research performance of universities. In addition, we scrutinize the role of other K Laura Himanen, Otto Auranen (corresponding author) and Hanna-Mari Puuska are at