The 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. of Harvard University.

[1] The 1962 survey was

also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians.[5] Schlesinger's son, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
conducted another poll in 1996.[6]
The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians
conducted by the Chicago Tribune. A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, which rose from 22nd in 1962 to 9th in 1982.
The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1988 to 1996 by William J. Ridings Jr. and Stuart
B. McIver and published in Rating The Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, from the Great and Honorable to
the Dishonest and Incompetent.[7] More than 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and
political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were
included and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in African-American
studies" as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the presidents in five categories
(leadership qualities, accomplishments and crisis management, political skill, appointments and character and
integrity) and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.
A 2000 survey by The Wall Street Journal consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent
professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number
of liberals and conservatives in the survey as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one
group or the other. According to the editors, this poll included responses from more women, minorities and young
professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably
similar" to the 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference in the 2000 poll being the lower rankings for the
1960s presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy and higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan at
8th. Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top three.
Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with James
Lindgren of Northwestern University Law School for the Federalist Society.[8] As in the 2000 survey, the editors
sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and
Republican-leaning scholars equal weight". Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top three, but editor James
Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time while
Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average".
The Siena College Research Institute of Siena College has conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2010,
and 2018—during the second year of the first term of each president since Ronald Reagan.[9] These surveys
collect presidential rankings from historians, political scientists, and presidential scholars in a range of attributes,
abilities, and accomplishments.[10] The 1994 survey placed only two presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points and two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, below 50
points.[11][12]
A 2006 Siena College poll of 744 professors reported the following results:[13]

 "George W. Bush has just finished five years as President. If today were the last day of his presidency,
how would you rank him? The responses were: Great: 2%; Near Great: 5%; Average: 11%; Below Average:
24%; Failure: 58%"
 "In your judgment, do you think he has a realistic chance of improving his rating?" Two-thirds (67%)
responded no; less than a quarter (23%) responded yes; and 10% chose "no opinion or not applicable"
Thomas Kelly, professor emeritus of American studies at Siena College, said: "President Bush would seem to
have small hope for high marks from the current generation of practicing historians and political scientists. In this
case, current public opinion polls actually seem to cut the President more slack than the experts do". Douglas
Lonnstrom, Siena College professor of statistics and director of the Siena Research Institute, stated: "In our 2002
presidential rating, with a group of experts comparable to this current poll, President Bush ranked 23rd of 42
presidents. That was shortly after 9/11. Clearly, the professors do not think things have gone well for him in the
past few years. These are the experts that teach college students today and will write the history of this era
tomorrow".[13]
The 2010 Siena poll of 238 presidential scholars found that former president George W. Bush was ranked 39th
out of 43, with poor ratings in handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy
accomplishments and intelligence. Meanwhile, the then-current president Barack Obama was ranked 15th out of
43, with high ratings for imagination, communication ability and intelligence and a low rating for background
(family, education and experience).[14][15]
The 2018 Siena poll of 157 presidential scholars reported George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham
Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson as the top five US presidents, with SCRI director Don Levy
stating, "The top five, Mount Rushmore plus FDR, is carved in granite with presidential historians...."[16] Donald J.
Trump—entering the SCRI survey for the first time—joined Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G.
Harding, and Franklin Pierce among the bottom five US presidents. George W. Bush, who presidential scholars
had rated among the bottom five in the previous 2010 survey, improved to a position in the third quartile.