Research productivity and utilization in landscape architecture

•This study surveyed all landscape architecture faculty in North America.•Asked about their research productivity and results were compared to a 1998 study.•Research productivity had increased in all categories, most notably in refereed journal article publication.•Research topics of faculty were compared with topics that professionals considered important.•None of the five most researched topics matched any of the five topics that professionals would find valuable. This study examined research productivity of landscape architecture faculty at North American universities and compared them with the results of a 1998 study. A questionnaire was mailed to all 457 individuals listed by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) as assistant professors, associate professors, and professors. Results indicated that productivity has increased in all categories. The average number of refereed journal articles had nearly doubled from 0.48 to 0.93 per faculty member. Publication of conference papers had almost trebled when compared with the 1998 study, from 0.87 to 2.25 per faculty member per year. In addition the number of respondents with PhD degrees increased by almost 15% to 42%. Despite increased productivity, the research tends to focus on topics of limited interest to practicing professionals. None of the top five research topics regularly used by professionals nor the top five areas where they thought more research would be valuable was in the top five topics researched by CELA members. In addition, only about 50% of professionals think that research is applicable to practice compared to about 90% of CELA members.