An approach for studying faculty research productivity over time as measured by the number of scholarly articles published was developed and tested. The approach attempts to take into account the fact that both the amount of available professional journal space and the number of faculty competing for publications have changed over time by measuring productivity in real or constant units in much the same manner that economists use constant dollars over time. Four data sources were used in the study: "Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory;""The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature;""American Universities and Colleges;" and 20 journals selected at random within each discipline. The disciplines of biology, psychology, and English and the years 1972, 1980, and 1988 were chosen for comparison. Major findings were: there was almost twice as much space available for faculty publishing in 1988 as in 1972 while faculty numbers increased only slightly; faculty effort to publish needs to almost double in order to produce the same amount today as was produced in 1972 (in 1972 units, a 1988 article is only about half what it was then). Three appendices are: growth of journals by discipline, decision rules that guided the collection of data; and journal sampling data for the field of psychology. Contains 21 references. (SM)