In many universities faculty promotions is strongly tied to the number of publications and a faculty member may not apply for promotion until they satisfy a certain number of points obtained for their publications all other maters are marginal at best.
Should other activities and accomplishments be considered? if yes what weight should they carry?
No, there should be a mix of attainments of the faculty concerned for promotion. Though it would depend on the type of the department/university one is talking about, in a usual university department, it may be a combination of the following:
1. Publication and the impact factor of the journal where published
2. Teaching the number of courses & students feedback
3. Contribution to money-earning activities, if applicable, for the university i.e. consulting
4. Contribution to the corporate life of the department/university (i.e.committees/administrative work)
Not necessarily. Faculty members at universities are generically responsible to transfer knowledge to their students, train and prepare them for future needs, roles and responsibilities. So, I don't agree that a faculty member should be given (accelerated) promotion only due to his/her publications.
Merit should be the main criterion for rewarding a faculty member whose performance is evaluated for promotion.Moreover, merit has to be evaluated in a manner that is logical, transparent, and above all acceptable as fair, to all concerned.
A faculty member is expected to have attained high levels of sustained accomplishment and an outstanding record in his professional work, leading to a
national or international reputation in his area of expertise.
- Research and Scholarly Activities
- Scholarship of Teaching
- Scholarship of Engagement
It depends on the position they wish to get: for instance, in our university, lecturers are expected to be good at teaching and they are not expected to publish a lot. So, if an assistant wishes to become a lecturer, then student evaluations matter more than publications. On the other hand, senior researchers are expected to teach a little but publish a lot in good journals. Thus, if a researcher wants to become a senior researcher, then being good at research but also being able to get research grants matters more than teaching.
No, there should be a mix of attainments of the faculty concerned for promotion. Though it would depend on the type of the department/university one is talking about, in a usual university department, it may be a combination of the following:
1. Publication and the impact factor of the journal where published
2. Teaching the number of courses & students feedback
3. Contribution to money-earning activities, if applicable, for the university i.e. consulting
4. Contribution to the corporate life of the department/university (i.e.committees/administrative work)
Actually, publications is one of the scientific merit of the possible candidate for promotion. In addition publication in a good journal reflecteability of the author to perform research and formulate results. From the other side, however, the presence of a good publications does not mena that person able to teach students excellent way.
I believe that promotion criteria should depend on both publications and other contributions and achievements.
Dear Nasser. you have already got very good responses. Publications should be the main criteria but other factors such teaching, grants from industry and administrative positions should also be considered.
Promotion can be based on combination of Research activity, University and community service and scholarly in teaching. Relying on the number of publications is and can be misleading especially with the proliferation of the collaboration on adding names to papers without actual contribution. Items of all of above should be stemmed from a clear vision of what the university likes to be. For example, under research, beside papers and journals ranking other issues can be (if the university likes to have international exposure) issues like: being recognized as reviewer/ Editorial member, ...etc, which we can call it "International Recognition". Also, grants and project works can be under research provided that the university provides the platform for encouraging such activities. Scholarity in teaching can be measured by students (but as well by other measures). University and community service is also a factor which can include active participation in university committees and community interaction. Again, the university should provide (and be engrossed) a suitable platform to facilitate such interaction. The proportions of these three items can be varied depending on the role of the academic and the university objectives. For example, I would say that a traditional university (teaching university) should be fair to its faculty members and give larger portion to teaching as long as it is traditional. Whenever it becomes a research university facilitating and supporting research, it can then increase the proportion for that part (Scholarity in innovation/research). Thanks. @Aldmour.
I think the criteria for promotion can depend on lots of other factors apart from publication alone, says, award and achivement, contribution to the profession and to the society etc... can also be consider.
Publications in reputable journals or in the form of research books are a strong and essential but should not be the sole criterion for promotion. Other contributions should be considered, for example, setting up and organising fundamental and/or applied search projects, patents, outreach actitivities to spread knowledge to the community, participation to policy making, technology transfer to industry, and good teaching quality.
Not necessary. One of the greatest mathematicians of modern world (Grigori Jakowlewitsch Perelman) has no publications, except a few number on arxiv.
Look the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman
Very interesting question and answers. Promotion should be evaluated based on research publication first. Teaching and students evaluation second and community service third. The weight of research publication in my opinion should be greater than the other two. Teaching should have greater percentage than services . However, if university orientation towards teaching more than research, then research quality and quantity are not priority. Professor in the past have had charisma more in their level of education and experience of specialized field. Now we need a level of criteria that judge more the innovative one and the productivity of faculty members. A justice standard should be considered and a fair evaluation should be applied to classify the candidates. Finally, we need quality and quantity of basic and applied research in most fields. Publication in sounded journal also must be checked.
Carl Friedrich Gauss did not published most of his results. Almost everything was found in his archive and published "post mortem".
From a logical ponto of view the question begs the matter. Indeed, using expressions such as "always", "never", "sole", "unique", "no one". etc., are untenable in research. Therefore we can already guess, in advance, a variety of answers.
I would kindly suggest that the formulation of these questions be more sensitive.
In many universities the faculty member is evaluated as a whole. Quality of research and publications, grants, new programs, contributions to the field, university and community are the factors. while others have a set point system for publications 3,2,1 and a certain sum should be reached. Both have good merits however, I believe that we need a 5 for some publications that help change a field or have a great impact on it as measured by the impact factor of the journal and the number of citations.
A good idea, Nasser! It makes sense to establish an "standard" to benchmark the dissertation quality. Say, the minimal required total impact factor for engineering science might be 10. Other criteria defines the University itself according to "best practice" criteria". The impact factor makes the dissertation publications "convertible currency, such that it makes possible to compare the theses over different countries. This factor is very reliable and practically hardly falsified universal criteria.
It should be based on a variety of factors such as publication and the impact factor of the journal where published, teaching the number of courses and students feedback
attracting research grant. contribution to the corporate life of the department/university (i.e.committees/administrative work) and the contribution to the wider community.
Umesh, you write: "teaching the number of courses and students feedback
attracting research grant. contribution to the corporate life of the department/university (i.e.committees/administrative work) and the contribution to the wider community. " This statement is, on my opinion, false and dangerous.
The dissertation is PRIMARY the scientific contribution. All other aspects, on the contrary, is TEACHING and ADMINISTRATION.
TEACHING is surely necessary for future possible professor, but what common points has the ADMINISTRATION with scientific work ????
ergo: Doctor grade is the grade of SCIENTIFIC qualification, but definitely NOT a grade of management or teaching.
Different aspect is professorship. It makes sense to establish these primarily non-scientific criteria for an application for professorship, but not for scientific qualification. Being, however, overestimated, the Uni gets a good MANAGER or good LECTURER instead of a good SCIENTIST.
Dear Shania
In many cases these days the impact factor is miss leading. Journal with hi impact factors may accept poor research. I know few of them. A specialized in the field publish hi quality of research might has low impact factors. Journals now days ask authors to cite from their publication to increase the impact factors. So we need to be cautious.
Overall performance and attainments in academic, research, extension as well as recognition and repute among academic and scientific bodies and students should be taken into account while considering candidature for promotion of a faculty member. As far as publications are concerned, quality of the work presented should be the criterion and not the number. I agree with Hashen, impact factor are generally misleading. It is seen time and again that a high impact journal accept poorly written paper presenting low quality work. on the other hand some very good papers are found in comparatively low impact journal. Furthermore, it not necessary that a very good paper writer would be a good and successful teacher.
we discuss the question "Should publications be the sole criteria for promotion of a faculty member?".
If I understand the question correctly, the term "promotion" concerns "the promotion thesis = doctor thesis". In this case the solely formal criterion must be the citation index PLUS personal opinion of the members of promotion board. It is the solely scientific qualification.
If "promotion" means the position in the administrative piramide, the numerous other administrative and management achievements could be taken into account.
The same is for teaching. I am not sure, that the best scientists are also the best lecturers, albeit there are brilliant exclusions (for classic examples, look Feinman and Landau on one side, and Einstein and Newton on the other side).
Lots of comments above trying to loop toward that teaching is not or must be of lower credit in promoting faculty. I believe that teaching is one important role of any faculty. It is after all that our job as academics is create the environment for developing the community by transfer the latest knowledge and expertise to the new generation. Hence, research can't be and shouldn't be in isolation from teaching though it looks so in many cases which is an unhealthy situation. Students should get and be involved in latest research activities. Hence, teaching and research/innovation should not be separate. Scholarship in teaching will continue to be part of the overall scholarship. I also like to add to the above professor responsibilities the responsibility in bridging disciplines (the multidisciplinary or scholarship of integration), See the work by ERNEST L. BOYER titled "Scholarship Reconsidered
PRIORITIES OF THE PROFESSORIATE", in which he had 4 scholary items as follows:
1 - THE SCHOLARSHIP OF DISCOVERY : This is about research and patents, in his words "at its best, contributes not only to the stock of human knowledge but also to the intellectual climate of a college or university. Not just the outcomes, but the process, and especially the passion, give meaning to the effort."
2- THE SCHOLARSHIP OF INTEGRATION: which is about bridging disciplines, in his words "need for scholars who give meaning to isolated facts, putting them in
perspective."
3- THE SCHOLARSHIP OF APPLICATION: this is about linking application to theory and having a fully interactive model (two way) between theory and practice
4- THE SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING
Thanks. @Aldmour
In our case, promotion is based on Publications and Performance Appraisal Results. There is no promotion based on Publications only. Faculty Member must score an average of grade "B" plus the publications too. The publications are also externally evaluated and graded using set standards and scores. Publication must also meet standards set, otherwise no promotion even if they are billions.
It is not always necessary that a faculty who have good publications would be good teacher and the faculty who does not have publications would not be a good teacher.
Therefore, only publication should not be criteria for promotion of faculty member but how to define a good faculty would again a cumbersome question.
Dear All,
It depends on the priority of the institute to account for research or teaching as a criteria for promotion.
For promotion of a faculty members, the following criteria are used in some universities, with most of the weight (90%) is allocated to publications: scientific research, scientific effort service to the University and the community, teaching, and public service to the university and university life and society. Promotion of administrative staff follows a different system.
Promotion criteria should depend upon nature of job/responsibility . For faculties in academia teaching capability, students' feedback, number of classes per week, supervision to Ph.D. students and overall academic excellence attained over a period of time should be taken into account alongwith good publication for post up gradation/promotion. ,While for research faculty, useful and implementable research output, process/technology developed, patents and publication in high impact journals should be the promotion criteria. So, in both the cases, publication may not be necessarily be the only;y criterion for promotion. Other performance indicators are equally important and deserve due consideration.
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