The number of scholarly journal articles published each year is growing, but little is known about the relationship between journal article growth and other forms of scholarly dissemination (e.g., books and monographs). Journal articles are the de facto currency of evaluation and prestige in STEM fields, but social scientists routinely publish books as well as articles, representing a unique opportunity to study increased article publications in disciplines with other dissemination options. We studied the publishing activity of social science faculty members in 12 disciplines at 290 Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States between 2011 and 2019, asking: 1) have publication practices changed such that more or fewer books and articles are written now than in the recent past?; 2) has the percentage of scholars actively participating in a particular publishing type changed over time?; and 3) do different age cohorts evince different publication strategies? In all disciplines, journal articles per person increased between 3% and 64% between 2011 and 2019, while books per person decreased by at least 31% and as much as 54%. All age cohorts show increased article authorship over the study period, and early career scholars author more articles per person than the other cohorts in eight disciplines. The article-dominated literatures of the social sciences are becoming increasingly similar to those of STEM disciplines.

The aging of the professoriate is a source of concern for research in the United States. Do senior faculty remain active and contribute to scientific advancement when there is no mandatory retirement? This study quantifies senior faculty publication activity in six broad fields, comparing their publication rates to their younger colleagues for published journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and book chapters. Career publication activity does not follow a “peak and decline” pattern described in earlier studies. Senior scholars remain active and shift their research focus to the development and evolution of ideas through the publication of books and book chapters.

The aging of the professoriate throughout the end of the twentieth century and the early years of the 2000′s (both before and after the end of mandatory retirement in the United States, ca. 1994) has become a source of concern for some scholars and research administrators, who posit that the “greying” of the academy results in lower research activity and a decline in scientific advancement. Some published opinions concur that senior scholars’ research programs do not keep pace with those of their younger colleagues, but little quantitative evidence has been presented to evaluate that claim. In this study, we quantify senior faculty publication activity in six broad fields, comparing their publication rates to their younger colleagues across four modes of knowledge dissemination: journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and book chapters. Career publication activity does not follow the “peak and decline” pattern described in earlier studies. In most fields, journal article publication rates do not decline substantively with age (and in some cases article publication rates are higher among senior scholars), conference proceeding publication rates tend to decline with age, while book and chapter publication rates increase markedly with age. Overall, senior scholars maintain publishing activity levels and tend to shift their focus to the development and evolution of ideas through the publication of longer-format works as books and book chapters.

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The ideal of the gentleman occupies an important position in the Confucian Analects. Many elements of this ideal appear in pre-Confucian sources as fundamental images of aristocratic excellence. This article presents several of those images as they appear in Western Chou bronze inscriptions, the Shih-ching and Shu-ching. In particular, we will study the role of model behavior and model emulation as well as images of Wen Wang, noble ancestors and their virtue, te. We shall see the application of these expressions of human excellence gradually extended beyond royalty and nobility to become components of a new definition of human worth applicable to all men.