How to Create Your Package for Promotion

Abstract

From the perspective of the candidate, the pathways leading to the promotion review—as well as the review itself—are often seen as mysterious and confusing. This observation was confirmed in a 2008 study conducted by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) [I] in which pre-tenure faculty at medical schools and health professions gave low ratings to the level of clarity surrounding tenure processes, criteria, standards, and the body of evidence needed for promotion. Some of this mystery and confusion is complicated by the subjective, evaluative aspect of promotion standards. In that respect, there are no easy answers to such questions as the following: How many peer-reviewed articles do I need? When, what, and where should I publish? What types of grants and how much funding should I have? How many students should I be teaching and mentoring? What ratings do I have to have on my teaching and clinical evaluations? Also, academic careers tend to be individualized in terms of breadth, depth, and focus, resulting in multiple pathways to success. Thus, it is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a specific road map that can be universally applied to all faculty that will predict or guarantee a successful promotion outcome. Given that there is no single prescribed, quantifiable path to promotion, perceptions regarding criteria and standards can be influenced by a variety of experiences, both personal and professional. As a result, different things may be said by different people about what is needed to advance in rank. While it will be important to gather perspectives from a variety of individuals in the years leading up to the promotion review, under most circumstances—and since the review will be initiated at the departmental level—the department chair is in the best position to provide guidance and counsel, to confirm current standards, and to interpret how the criteria will be applied in considering a particular case for promotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)