Granting or denying tenure to a faculty member is a problem for many tenure and promotion committees, department chairs and deans, regardless of the college or school that will be granting or denying a faculty member tenure. To help these committees make more concise decisions, should colleges and schools require a minimum number of peer reviewed articles for granting tenure? Is it better to have no set number of required articles upon which a tenure decision would be based?
We are currently in consultation on updating our promotions criteria, and number of publications was one of the KPIs suggested fro inclusion.
A tick box count of publications is too crude a measure as there is variation between fields on what would be considered a reasonable number of publications per year. It would also ignore the quality of publications and their level of impact.
The publications should be considered in the tenure. However, the evaluation of publications should not be based on quality and not quantity.
As there is no perfect measure for research productivity. H-index, number of citations, Impact factor of journals can be used in the evaluation.
It should depend on who the person is (e.g. if somebody's academic career began 3 years ago, you cannot demand the same number of published articles or the same h-index from them as from somebody whose career began 20-30 years ago (of course, their positions probably also differ: e.g. assistant professor vs. full professor). Also, not all people want to become professors, e.g. some prefer to stay lecturers: then they can teach more, they are not expected to do so much research or apply for grants and lead a research team.
In terms of a number of articles: for many universities, only ISI-indexed aticles matter, for some, some other journals are fine, too (some have their own lists, some use a list approved in their country), some also take into account book chapters by certain publishers, but usually, conference papers and working papers don't matter much (except in case of people whose academic career has just started).
It is highly absurd to create pressure on faculty member by the way of minimum number of publication etc for extending a tenure....
A teacher in an institution.....
However there needs to be a link with the reality before applying "measure of publications" as a yard stick for measurement.
- Does the Institution provide enough scope of time and resources to the teacher to per sue research and publications.
- Do they motivate the performance on publications
- is there a common agreed platform among all the members that the publication is a "Bench mark' for measurement.
- The teacher is made aware as that publication activity is also a core delivery of their performance
- Improves the perceived position of self
- Escalates the value proposition of the institution.
- Also give opportunity for students to team up for a joint research and publication.
Universities striving for higher ranking will probably ask for more research outcome since this is what counts in the end. Higher ranking leads to higher interest of well-known scientists regarding visiting scholarships and acquiring higher research funds. This will automatically put some pressure on faculty to publish (or perish).
For faculty of higher education such preconditions do not make much sense, as Krishnan pointed out earlier.
There needs to be a minimum number and in most universities there is. One Modle is a least four publications with at least one in an ISI indexed journal. 2-5 are reasonable numbers for publications. A complete through analysis is of the faculty member performance is great but it must have a minimum number of publications.
The tenure truck and promotions are really challenging issues; universities are willing to have regulations for all faculties and institutes. This is impossible to be achieved in the same field. However, many factors can be taken into consideration including the originality of the papers and the journals and the number of publications.
To me for faculty member ,academic excellence is a must which can built evaluated in the line of his experience coupled with the academic achievements he has acquired.This should be the basic criteria .If the procedure demands a contribution of the articles in selective process then prior to selection his articles to be scrutinized but i feel faculty member can be judge only by contribution he has made in the past in the light of experience .
Tenure is a process that examines all the three aspects of teaching, scholarly activities and service contributions by the faculty members. The relative weightage given changes depending upon the contributions. For scholarly activities journal publications becomes an important component while research support in terms of grants also becomes a part of it. Though there is no minimum number as such, but at least one publication in a journal of reputation in the area per year is considered as minimum.
Whether or not colleges and universities SHOULD or should not require a minimum number of publications for tenure, they DO make this requirement, so we as faculty members have to live with it. I was denied tenure at Williams College because while I had two articles in print in a highly rated journal, I did not have a book! I subsequently obtained an appointment at the University of Connecticut on the strength of nine articles. Entering as an associate professor, I shortly thereafter was granted tenure on the strength of my publishing record plus teaching. My first book, accompanied by laudatory reviews of it plus a quantity of separate articles enabled my promotion to full professor. There I remained my entire academic career, publishing as much or more than I did when "under the gun" to publish. Publishing for better or for worse became a way of life, and I prospered under it. For some it is better to have no set requirement of publications. For me, though, the requirement worked out.
If thbere are many candidates and thus there is no man power to carefully assess each case for application, a certain metric wil have to be used. This may sound unfair, but it is as long as the rules are trasparent and apply to all candidates.
One measure must be the number of influential papers. However, this must be discipline-specific and has the endorsement most colleagues.
I do not know if we should have a minimum number of articles to be published for tenure, but we have to accept some measures for knowing the importance of our work. Some accountability can be imposed on people seeking promotion in career. To me, the impact points are more important than the number of articles.
I think it should be a minimum number of articles for obtaining and, more important for renewing such an academic position. Otherwise, we have the kingdom of the relatives and public relations, just like the Greek Universities case.
I agree with Behrouz, in manmy case publications is just a marker of person's "value" in science. However, the quality of the publications is even more important. There are many more "markers" of scientific value, but many people use publications number as more sim0le marker. This, in trun, in many case "stimulate" peole to publish many simple papers, instead of one big fundamental one.
There are valuable opinions by dear colleagues. I agree with @Nelson in that "whether or not colleges and universities SHOULD or should not require a minimum number of publications for tenure, they DO make this requirement, so we as faculty members have to live with it."
We DO have to live with it. At my workplace (Department of Mathematical Sciences) one can get tenure based either on research merits or pedagogical merits - with the reason that at a math department we need to have a lot of staff that do massive undergraduate teaching to about 80%. So the discussion regarding tenure or not tenure has a slightly different angle at a department like mine - math - the need for a very heavy portfolio of groundbreaking research papers is NOT always there. I am not sure that the difference between subjects at the university has been brought up within the several answers sofar, but clearly it is an important factor to bring in - whether the institute is teaching-heavy or research-heavy. If you want to get tenure as a teaching faculty member there are requirements regarding your research but your pedagogical merits is counted much much more.
Thanks for the many good answers above!
I am Agree with the answers of Prof. Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan and Prof. Nelson Orringer.
Yes, I think the professor in a uni should be hired depending on his publications and its quality, too. I prefer also to include the external funded projects too.
In my opinion, Granting tenure to a faculty member should not be based on a specific number of publications. True measure of the research is decided from the way it impacts the academic fraternity. Evaluation criteria thus should be based on quality and not quantity
I disagree that a minimum number of articles should be set as one of the requirements for tenure. We have several renowned persons whose few articles have laid down important framework for on-going development in their fields. For example, how many articles has Mr. Kalman written in the Systems area? Very few; however, his contributions are just remarkable. There are several others too. What I am putting across here is that the number of publications does not mean as much as the quality of the publications. Of course, it is appropriate to require that the faculty should be publishing his research results. But I feel it is not necessary to impose a number on the publications. That will surely deteriorate the quality of the publications. Some other metrics should be used to make assessment on the publications aspect.
Article/publications reflects results, output, both theoretical / practical impacts (direct/indirect)/perspectives, and apart from research articles - reviews, popular/technical articles, monographs, bulletins, booklets, book chapters, books, perspectives, leaflets, success stories need to be written by all teachers/researchers to promote and disseminate knowledge to all. Yes minimum no. / standard need to be there for assessing any worker.
I do not believe that a set minimum number of publications should be required. Having said that published work and evidence of scholarship and professional development should be shown. I believe the record of the faculty member as a whole should be considered, flexible enough to consider what is in the best needs of the university and the faculty member.
Such system is implemented by a university I worked at in the US. Below are their tenure regulations:
The decision to grant tenure shall take into account institutional factors such as the capacity of the department or the college to renew itself, the development of new fields of study and projections of student enrollment.
The Criteria upon which decisions to tenure are based shall be as follows:
Teaching Effectiveness – Tenure appointments shall be made only when there is a clear evidence of the individuals’ ability and diligence as a teacher.
Scholarship and Professional growth – Evidence of new and creative work shall be sought in the candidate’s published research or in his instructional materials and techniques when they incorporate new ideas or scholarly research. Works should be evaluated as well as listed, and work in progress should be assessed. When work is a product of a joint effort, it is the responsibility of the department chairperson to establish as clearly as possible the role of the candidate in the joint effort.
The following factors may be supplementary considerations in the decision on tenure. The weight accorded to each will vary from case to case.
Service to the Institution – The faculty plays an important role in the formulation and implementation of the University policy, and administration of the University. Faculty members should therefore, be judged on the degree and quality of their participation in the college and University government. Similarly faculty contributions to student welfare, through service on committees or as an advisor to student organizations, should be recognized.
Service to the Public – Service to the community, state or nation, both in the faculty member’s capacity as a scholar and in the areas beyond this when the work is pertinent and significant, shall be recognized.
Tenure should not normally be granted before the fifth annual reappointment. Only in exceptional cases may tenure be granted before time: when appointment to the faculty at the university requires the continuation of tenure previously awarded by another institution of higher learning; when a prestigious fellowship interrupts continuous service during the probationary period; or when some extraordinary reason indicates the college would be well served be the early grant of tenure.
I have said in another thread that we should have an ordering of journals. Each paper gets a number of publication points, and each citation some other number. Then to have a certain position one needs certain number of publication points and a certain number of citation points. That simple!
Academic tenure defines the character of faculty appointment at Western Michigan University as continuous until resignation, retirement, termination for disability, dismissal for cause, or expiration of the recall period in the event of layoff...
As per the areas of Professional Competence, Service and Recognition .... "In additionon, holding office in national, regional, and state professional associations and contributing papers or services to such organizations constitute professional recognition. The preparation of professionally-sound proposals and/or acquisition of externally-funded grants constitute a form of recognition"...
https://www.wmich.edu/acb/article-17.pdf
Let's throw out this idea of quantity of research publications as a metric for tenure and promotion and examine the concept of quality of research as a yard stick for promotion. If we place emphasis on the quantity instead of the quality, we are most likely going to encourage a flood of plublications containing no substance as has commenced lately on the web. To cite an example, a work associate of mine was recently faced with a publication request by the administration where we work. He just put together, without any enhancements, information and summary of ideas collected from text books and suceeded in publishing 3 papers on the web; the only requirement he encountered was a fee of $ 50.00 per paper from the publishers. He was certainly aware that the material contents of the papers were not new and they were of low quality but he published them anyway, because he had to comply with the request from the administration. And I hope this same question does not trickle down to our students; I mean the number of publcations our Ph.D students should have before they graduate.
In 2010 I went thru the process to become tenured at my university so I feel I am capable of answering your question. My answer is that there should be no number of published article to qualify for tenure. At my university the tenure committee uses a system of assigning preset numbers for each item on the application which include number of publications and each applicant must have a 100% number in order to qualify for tenure. The application is evaluated by faculty within the department and these numbers are assigned by your department tenure committee. My application was evaluated as lacking .69 points but I was given an opportunity to provide more evidence to support what I submitted in my application and I was finally awarded tenure.n I hope my answer adds to your search for a answer.
I just ran across this thread, and will put my 2 cents in. I am a full professor at a large public R1 institution in the United States. I have served as both a member and chair of a departmental P&T committee on numerous occasions. My field is neuroscience (biomedical research), and I have a joint appointment across the departments of Neurology and Kinesiology. To date, I have published 75 peer reviewed manuscripts and my H-index is 32. This provides the foundation for my statement:
First, it is important to emphasize that publications are the currency of science. Thus, productivity has to be judged to some degree in number of publications. While it is difficult to judge quality across fields, measures of journal impact and individual h-index provide the ability to assess the general impact of an applicant's publications. The usual profile desired for tenure at an R1 institution is someone with reasonable minimum productivity (>=2 articles per year as assistant professor, and >=3 articles per year as associate professor at R1 institution). One expects that at least 25-50% should be in a journal with an impact factor >2. Now, once that is stated, variations abound. That is, one can have lower number of publications in journals with larger impacts . In addition, many articles in paid-open access journals with low to zero impact (an increasing trend) is not viewed very favorably. I have never seen a committee simply count the number of articles as a measure of productivity.
With regard to other 'research' factors: One of the greatest impacts on one's portfolio for P&T is the external letters. Has the individual distinguished themselves in their field? If the answer is yes, this can override low productivity in a decision, and if the answer is no, this can negatively impact the decision, even in the face of reasonable productivity. Of course, invited speaking engagements and conference activity also contributes to one's impact.
One's Grant record is also and obviously important, as a component of scholarship, but in my experience does not override publications. It can however, potentiate the positive or negative effects of one's publication record. In the case of exceptional grant records on either side: multiple renewed R01's (positive), or no attempt at applying for funding (negative), the influence of grantsmanship on one's portfolio can be much greater.
Of course, other factors such as teaching evaluations and service record are important. Although this discussion is about research, the major consideration for P&T at R1 institutions.
Getting back to the initial question: My opinion is, NO, one should not have a threshold NUMBER of publications. This would give the artificial impression that number of publications is the key determinant of tenure, and would degrade the influence of the P&T committee, an important component of faculty self-governance and determination.
I agree with Dr Krishnan that pressure shouldn't be created on teaching faculty with reference to publication of articles as this has already decreased the quality of publications because of the limited time available. This is again, with reference to my country. Though it is truly one good measure of research presentation potency.
It is not easy to objectively answer this question because in individual countries and also even in individual universities in specific matters this type of rules may be unevenly defined in the internal regulations of a particular university. If the internship function of a faculty member should take into account the issue of scientific and scientific research, the university may specify such requirements in its regulations. However, what kind and how many scientific publications should be in the scientific achievements of the candidate for this position is a specific issue usually specified in a particular university.
A predefined number of papers is a silly rule - and it's also very lazy! :-) The criteria cannot only be based on numbers. The committee, or whatever it is called, must actually read a fair portion of the work done, in order to assess not only if the candidate can actually write, if the candidate works on worthy and relevant topics, if the progression over the time period is good (e.g., more advanced problems as time goes by) and if the papers solve a problem that is of actual interest. It is not an easy task, I should say, but it is necessary, and if it is done in the right way, and efficiently, it could be done rather quickly, if the committee is of the senior staff type.
Though many institutions have set criteria for faculty members where number of published article is one but I believe in quality of content and contribution of the person to that publication.
We are in the Middle East because our education is a government education. There is no such requirement from our colleges on the teacher
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