Dear Mahfuz,

What would be your criteria to endorse promotion: - quality or quantity, or even diversity? Of course, it depends on the tasks you expect to be fulfilled with the academic promotion. Do they imply quality of work, or diversity and adaptative abiliies.

In terms of academic jobs, I would personaly always consider quality before any other aspect.

To add, samples in each article is different from others in size and in the selecting method.

Dear Mahfuz,

What would be your criteria to endorse promotion: - quality or quantity, or even diversity? Of course, it depends on the tasks you expect to be fulfilled with the academic promotion. Do they imply quality of work, or diversity and adaptative abiliies.

In terms of academic jobs, I would personaly always consider quality before any other aspect.

My simple answer is that the most important point should be drawn to the excellent and unique contribution of these articles in the local and global contexts. Taking samples from the same population is a normal thing and I personally do not take it negatively.

My major concern, dear Mahfuz, will be the soundness and the quality of the articles and their originality towards saying something new. But the population is another, possibly secondary, story! 

It depends on the papers themselves, are they promoting the same contribution with different results each time attained by changing the samples, if this is the case I would not recommend promotion.

However, if there was a specific (different contribution) for each paper I would recommend the promotion, on one condition, the author did not use "over fitting", i.e. did not select the "best" data to get the best results, this is dangerous and dishonest.

there is only one way to find out, this can be done by repeating the experiments on different data from the same population, several times using "bootstrap" samples  and take the average of all the samples, compare this average with the result of the paper, if it is almost similar recommend for publication, otherwise not.

Quality should be first criteria to choose article and promote knowledge.

Some referees significantly cosider the diversity of sample population, diversity of statistical techniques, and the diversity of journals that articles are published in.

The sameness of  population used in the research might be because the individual has only that resource of data. It is worth knowing why one date source is used (if it is lack of hard work to collect data from other sources), although the quality of the publications and the numbers are measuring values to support a promotion as long as all papers contain different results. 

In some cases, a researcher is required by the institution to study selected aspects within the institution.  But the respondents would not always be the same, because each cohort of students will be different.  So will the number of respondents in each study, because the researcher has different number of available respondents.  On the surface, it looks the same; but it is not so.  It's good to review again the definition of 'population' as the number of individuals in the same (research) setting, at the same time.

I think if all the articles are of high quality and relevant to the job requirements, there shouldn't be a problem.

Using the same population, but with different subsets of data each time with different aims, results and conclusions is widely spread in longitudinal/long-term studies of wildlife species

If quality papers are prepared and published on separate themes from the same population, even from the same sample, I think it should not be the problem. For example, a survey conducted on HR practices by administering a comprehensive questionnaire, a researcher can prepare few research papers out of the data so collected using different practices in different papers.

Unless it is a specific population oriented study, else it will be biased - Every population will have a unique study characteristics or parameters to-be studied.

It depends on the question asked and the task. Researchers used Rats to solve problems related to many questions despite the fact of same population. Therefore the quality and the added value are more important than the sample drown from same population. 

Hi,

In fact, it's very casual and typical to conduct a project (or a fundamental research) on a given and very precise sample (population, group of people, or materials) which may lead to multiple  articles and conference papers.

If the discussions and data analysis are not the same, the methodology and central thesis are not interrelated, and self-citations are insignificant, I can vouch for his promotion.

Quality of each paper should be the only criteria for assessing them, irrespective of sample population. It is okay if each paper analyzes different aspects and provides different results.

Dear Barbara,

I mean all types of researches, surveys, pharmaceutical and medical researches. I believe comments can differ in accordance with type of research.

Well, if the papers study the various characteristics of a population, it is natural to sample from the same population. the crucial thing is if these papers are original contributions to science! 

As I understand, this is longitudinal research which is an observational method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly & can extend over years or even decades. It is accepted if the quality of the findings is high provided that it does not reiterate the same results with variety of synonyms. Example: Some chemist may discover an interesting material developed in a plant over certain time & then goes on publishing several papers about the same characteristic of the material with titles such as (… Material Discovered in Vegetable Plant So & So) & in the blank, there are: Sweet, Sugary, Sacchariferous, Candy-like, Honey-like …etc. There are journals which will publish the various “forms” but, in essence, all of the papers ought to be treated as single paper by a promotion committee.

Quality of articles  should be the main criteria in the assessment must be the quality of articles, irrespective of data used in the articles. the articles must not have overlaps and must cover different aspects of and provide different results.

Promotion committees in our university ask the authors to specify the overlap percentages for all articles. Three different committees then look at the articles and give appropriate points considering  quality and overlaps.

In addition to my previous comment, I also agree with the contribution made by Behrooz. Quality of research should always be our main criteria for promoting university staff.

I agree that quality of research is important to decide promotion.  

'The quality of a research paper depends primarily on the quality of the research study it reports. However, there is also much that authors can do to maximise the clarity and usefulness of their papers. Journals' instructions for authors often focus on the format, style, and length of articles but do not always emphasise the need to clearly explain the work's science and ethics: so this review reminds researchers that transparency is important too.'

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20233312

The quality of the articles and/or papers commands and/or demands promotion!

Period!

But how is quality of research judged by promotion committees that do not (truly) master the relevant literature of the work they judge, and this independent from communication quality?

Dear Marcel, thank for your post.  I think that it's necessary that people who make up the promotion committee have a good knowledge of the work of those that they judge.  I think  some of us would decline being on the committee, if we cannot make a just and expert decision.  Do you agree?

Friends, besides quality of research and impact factor and gain in knowledge, I think that research that has impact of the lives of members of the community should be highly valued, and deserving of appreciation.

'I think that farmers, fishermen, fish mongers, fruit sellers are all CONCERNED ABOUT IMPACT of our research. Does it improve water quality? Does it desalinate water, and make it useful? They are not so concerned about impact factor. ARE WE TO BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT WE DO FOR OUR PEOPLE, FOR THEIR LIVES AND WELL BEING, OR FOR 'STATUS' AND IMPACT FACTOR?'

https://www.researchgate.net/post/We_are_very_cautious_about_impact_factor_journal_and_publication_record_but_what_fraction_of_the_common_mass_absorb_this

Paper quality is important. Many papers can be published on different set of data from same population.

Yes, colleagues. Quality of paper and its contribution to science are important factors in academic promotions.

Dear @Marcel, I also agree with @Miranda that if someone doesn't feel qualified for being in a particular selection/promotion committee, s/he should simply decline the role.

Dear Brenda,

You know a lot of good research that remains unpublished for years. I think this is a good question you can raise. Why some good researches remain unpublished for years?.

It is interesting that good work may not be published for years, and yet some journals are in need of good articles.  (See the RG question and discussion at the attached link.)  There should be a better way to match the needs of the editors/publishers and those of the authors (especially as many people find themselves in each role, on occasion).  With the use of the Internet, one would expect communication between these interests would be better.  

I found an online statistics journal that met my needs since 1996 for documentation of R&D useful to statistical agencies for official statistics, but it is independently run, and the publisher, Prof Emeritus R. Krutchkoff, Virginia Tech &SU,  plans to let the journal drop after his death, because he does not want someone to take it and impose an "agenda."  I suggested that a chapter of a statistical society take it over, but he was not certain it would be run as he intended. 

I have refereed or been editor for several journals, and I do not think any have found exactly the right balance.  (The Pakistan Journal of Statistics, PJS, may have come closest to a good balance, in my experience.)  Perhaps a symposium of sorts might be useful?  There should be a better way to work out these logistics to better mutual benefit.  

As to the original question that Mahfuz posted, quality and usefulness are of great importance, so I agree with most answers posted here.  

Also I'd note that i think that there are some very well-known datasets that numerous people might use if it helps test the ideas being presented. Anyway, one comes to mind in that a friend once asked me to help locate some data, from the US FAA, I think, that was oftened used when people wanted to test a new time series methodology. 

https://www.researchgate.net/post/As_an_Editor_How_to_improve_level_quality_of_your_journal

The question may please be elaborated. Could you please clarify 'all articles from the same population?'

Over the years I have served as an external reviewer for a number of professors seeking promotion at their school/university to full professor.  Generally the school offers guidance for reviewers in regard to expectations.  For example at research schools in the US, publication in the best journals even in small numbers (3) and a number of other supporting publications are deemed sufficient for promotion.  Conversely, at schools that are viewed as primarily teaching oriented with low research expectations 10 articles from almost any outlet are acceptable.  A reviewer must also use common sense as in one review I did the candidate had five articles and all were basically the same article.  That is, the candidate changed the title of the article but the narrative was about 80-90 percent identical.  In this case I called the host university and told them I would not be able to review the promotion package.  The bottom line for me and as many have already stated, numbers are important but quality is more important.  One should also look for citation counts and awards by the publication for "best paper" as indicators of quality.

Yes, It is extremely good ideal to enhance research quality and its application.

If these articles are excellent, novel and have good contributions for the body of knowledge, then I recommend the applicant for promotion. using data from the same population is not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes you collect valuable good data from one population that could be used in a large number of good articles.

Best wishes

Depends on the papers and the population.