Christopher Russell Marsicano

Davidson College · Educational Studies

Despite the relative youth of bibliometric web platforms (Google Scholar was released in 2004), they play an increasingly significant role in the assessment of the impact of scholars and the research they produce. This scholarly essay provides a thorough review of the literature on bibliometric platforms, the extent to which they make available rel...

School and college reopening-closure policies are considered one of the most promising non-pharmaceutical interventions for mitigating infectious diseases. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of these policies is still debated, largely due to the lack of empirical evidence on behavior during implementation. We examined U.S. college reopenings’ associati...

Postsecondary institutions’ responses to COVID-19 are a topic of immediate relevance. Emergent research suggests that partisanship was more strongly linked to institutions offering in-person instruction for Fall 2020 than was COVID-19. Using data from the College Crisis Initiative and a multiple group structural equation modeling approach, we teste...

In this essay, we conduct a review of the ways in which Google Scholar, Scopus, and other bibliometric tools may prove useful for faculty in tenure and promotion decisions. We begin with an examination of literature from multiple disciplines on the use of bibliometric platforms. We then examine the metrics provided by these platforms for citation a...

As federal policymakers consider changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes, research examining the characteristics and financial behaviors of student loan borrowers participating in IDR is necessary. Using the nationally representative Survey of Consumer Finances, we examined the demographics of IDR enrollment. Counter to expectations, low-i...

Institutional responses to COVID-19 are a topic of much concern. Emergent research has suggested that politics and polarization was more strongly linked, than was COVID-19, to institutions engaging in-person instruction for Fall 2020. This study used Structural Equation Modeling to test this trend. Based upon political polarization and dependency,...

This brief represents a big step in the growth of the College Crisis Initiative (C2i). What began as a group of three undergraduate research assistants and their professor is now a team consisting of over 30 students, four Davidson college faculty leaders, and a growing number of research affiliates at think tanks, universities, and firms on two co...

This article explores how the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted United States higher education over the course of the first year from Spring 2020–Spring 2021. Utilizing a case study methodology, blending proprietary, closely held, public use, and archival data, we find that political and institutional factors shaped the decision to re...

Congressional lobbying by education-related interest groups is an understudied subject in education research. This brief uses congressional lobbying expenditure data from 1998 to 2017 to examine trends in lobbying behavior by labor unions; K–12 education providers; and public, private nonprofit, and for-profit higher education institutions. Educati...

American higher education institutions rapidly responded to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Between March 1st and April 4th, over 1,400 colleges and universities closed their doors and transitioned to online instruction. This paper uses a novel dataset and draws upon theories of institutional isomorphism to descriptively examine the trends in how hig...

The Senate HELP committee is considering changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes for student loans, necessitating research that examines the characteristics and financial behaviors of the borrowers in IDR programs. Using descriptive methods and a nationally representative sample, we examine the demographics of IDR enrollment. Contrary to t...

As federal policymakers consider changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes, research that examines the characteristics and financial behaviors of student loan borrowers participating in IDR is necessary. Using the nationally representative Survey of Consumer Finances, we examine demographics of IDR enrollment. Counter to expectations, low-in...

The Senate HELP committee is considering changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes for student loans, necessitating research that examines the characteristics and financial behaviors of the borrowers in IDR programs. Using descriptive methods and a nationally representative sample, we examine the demographics of IDR enrollment. Contrary to t...

Congressional lobbying by education-related interest groups is an understudied subject in education research. This research brief uses Congressional lobbying expenditure data from 1998 to 2017 to examine trends in lobbying behavior by labor unions, K-12 education providers, and public, private non-profit, and for-profit higher education institution...

Preparing educated and active citizens is one of the primary goals of higher education, yet colleges and universities may neglect civic engagement due to the prioritization of labor market preparation. Drawing on neoinstitutional theory, this paper examines the missions, infrastructure, activities, and outcomes related to civic engagement across po...

More than 25 years transpired since the publication of Boyer’s (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities for the Professoriate and more than 10 years have passed since the publication of Weimer’s Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning: Professional Literature that Makes a Difference (2006) that delineated approaches to the classificati...

Recent popular print media sources have touted regional state tuition exchanges as a way for students to take advantage of lower tuition prices in an era of rising costs of attendance. However, few have studied the extent to which these exchanges affect enrollment, college choice, and other factors related to the student experience. This paper uses...

An opinion piece for InsideHigherEd on how the Scottish Independence vote may impact the country's universities.