TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The College of Business at Florida State University ranks 56th among the nation's premier business schools for the frequency of downloaded faculty research during the past 12-months according to a new study by the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). When ranked against public colleges and universities only, the college rated even higher, at 31st.

The study also ranked the College 37th in the number of new papers submitted over the past year to the SSRN eLibrary.

"The SSRN results reflect one of the reasons I came to Florida State University which is because of the high quality faculty that exist in the College of Business", states Caryn Beck-Dudley, dean of the college. "To be ranked within the top 60 universities in the world is a testament to our faculty and the academic prestige their work brings the college, our students and our alumni."

More than 800 U.S. and international business schools were ranked in the study conducted by the SSRN. Criteria used to rank the FSU College of Business included: total lifetime downloads of faculty papers (39th), total number of papers on SSRN (57th), total number of authors (49th), and downloads per paper (11th) and per author (33rd).

SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of several specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. SSRN's networks encourage early distribution of research results by reviewing and publishing submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world. Subscribers communicate directly with each other concerning their research. SSRN currently reaches over 35,000 people in approximately 70 countries.

Founded in 1950, the FSU College of Business is one of the youngest business schools and is recognized as one of the nation's 10 largest business schools. It is FSU's second largest college with an enrollment of more than 6,300 students, and boasts a distinguished faculty of 115, including a Francis Eppes professor, three university named professors, seven Eminent Scholars and 30 endowed professorships.

For more information about the College of Business, please go to www.cob.fsu.edu.