Are outstanding researchers also top teachers? Exploring the link between research quality and teaching quality

We investigate the research-teaching relationship within a medium-sized department of an Italian university. Relying on a large number of student questionnaires over the period from 2017 to 2022, we find that instructors who are active in publishing journal articles are deemed by students to be more clear during lectures, but this perception worsens when professors achieve higher research quality (as measured via international journal rankings) and are used to publishing with many coauthors. Overall, our results point to a positive association between research productivity and teaching quality but also show that teachers pursuing greater research quality may be compelled to neglect teaching, thus highlighting a trade-off between them. • We study the research-teaching relationship within an Italian university department. • A partial proportional odds model is estimated using students' surveys for 2017 to 2022. • Instructors who actively publish in journal articles are found more clear by students. • Teachers achieving higher research quality and publishing with many coauthors are rated worse. • Hence, pursuing stronger research quality may induce lecturers to neglect teaching.