Research productivity: Are higher academic ranks more productive than lower ones?

This work analyses the links between individual research performance and academic rank. A typical bibliometric methodology is used to study the performance of all Italian university researchers active in the hard sciences, for the period 2004–2008. The objective is to characterize the performance of the ranks of full (FPs), associate and assistant professors (APs), along various dimensions, in order to verify the existence of performance differences among the ranks in general and for single disciplines.