Upskilling the promotion and tenure process: Training administrators for responsible use of research impact metrics

Abstract

School and departmental administrators are tasked with evaluating the research output of their faculty as part of the promotion and tenure review process. At our institution, this evaluation is communicated in a letter describing the dissemination venues for the candidate’s research publications, typically journals. Seen in one light, the letter is an opportunity for the school or departmental administrator to advocate for the candidate. However, the focus on dissemination venue rather than on the article or product itself wastes an opportunity to describe the value of the candidate’s work in the context of their discipline and institution. Instead of providing rich information about the work, these letters often copy content from the publisher website and provide Journal Impact Factors, when available, without context.

To encourage schools and departments to produce stronger letters in the assessment of a candidate’s dissemination venues, we developed a targeted training for Associate Deans for Research and Department Chairs. The opportunity to develop this training resulted from a broader conversation with faculty about journal cuts and other changes in the library’s strategy for providing access to scholarly content. The faculty asked the library to provide training about changes in scholarly publishing, citation metrics, and altmetrics. Given the time constraints of the audience, our training focuses on providing practical guidance for using and understanding new sources of evidence when writing and reading evaluation letters for promotion and tenure. In addition to describing the content and the institutional context for the training sessions, we will discuss the long-term implications of this effort.