Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion Decisions 8 June 2020
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Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Tilburg University Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion Decisions 8 June 2020 Tenure and promotion policies at the Department of Economics 1 • Introduction I. Summary applying for (all tenured associate and full professors for a tenure and promotion to associate professor decision, This document establishes guidelines for tenure and promo- etc.) are invited to participate. tions in the Department of Econometrics and Operations c. The criteria should be consistent with TiSEM’s strategy Research (EOR), which consist of for 2018–2021, which specifies the ambition to “remain in the European top three in all fields [of business and a. departmental criteria for tenure and promotions and economics] (as measured by rankings).” b. a departmental procedure for tenure and promotions. d. The criteria should be consistent with TiU’s, TiSEM’s, and in particular the department’s vision to stimulate II. Background Data Science related research. e. Point of departure is that research and teaching are The guidelines are informed by the following background treated symmetrically. This is apparent from section VI documents: below, where “very good” and “excellent” qualifications are mapped into requirements for tenure and promo- a. “TiSEM Academic Careers: Guiding principles & proce- tion. Needless to say, the elaboration of what is “very dures for tenure and promotions,” version 2.3, revised good” and what is “excellent” is very different for re- December 2018. search and teaching (and other activities). b. “TiSEM Strategy 2018–2021: Excel – Innovate – Connect,” f. Important roles are assigned to ad hoc review commit- 12 October 2017. tees for research (RRC) and teaching (TRC). g. Bibliometric analysis and student evaluations may The TiSEM guidelines (a; from here on: TAC) provide the provide an objective basis for assessing a candidate’s context for and binding restrictions on the departmental cri- research and teaching, but peer review of the candidate’s teria and procedure. TiSEM’s strategy document (b) sets the actual research and teaching is leading in their assess- ambition and goals that the tenure and promotion guidelines ment. should serve. h. The document does not describe the transition rules for current tenure track assistant professors or current col- III. Scope leagues who are already working towards a promotion. It is obvious that a smooth transition will have to take The guidelines concern the departmental input into decisions place, but what this exactly entails will have to be decid- taken by the School’s Assessment Committee (AC). Accord- ed (by the head of department) on a case by case basis. ing to TAC, Section 5, these include V. Procedure • tenure and promotions to associate professor, professor 2, and professor 1; “Steps” refer to the six steps of TiSEM’s assessment proce- and exclude (among other things) all other promotions and dure (TAC, Section 4). the appointment of lecturers. Throughout, we assume that all candidates for tenure and promotion are affiliated with either Econometrics or OR (we use capitalized “Econometrics” and the acronym “OR” to refer to the department’s two research groups, not the epony- mous fields of research). IV. General principles a. The departmental procedure and criteria should meet- TiSEM’s requirements (TAC), in order to minimize going back and forth with the AC. b. The procedure should be transparent and consistent. Therefore, we specify an explicit and inclusive procedure with clear criteria. Specifically, we use the same proce- dures for Econometrics and OR, in which all department members who have at least the position the candidate is Tenure and promotion policies at the Department of Economics 2 • Procedure Step 1: Preliminary request i. Initiate tenure and/or promotion procedure (a) Candidate and HoD ii. Submit preliminary request to dean HoD Decide on financial and legal feasibility Dean iii. If ok, continue with iv; if not, inform candidate HoD Step 2: Departmental review iv. Prepare preliminary portfolio for departmental review (TAC, Appendix A, documents 2,4,6, 7; and all Candidate relevant research papers, preferably as hyperlinks in documents 2 and 7) v. Appoint ad hoc departmental teaching review committee (TRC; b) HoD vi. Appoint ad hoc departmental research review committee (RRC; c) HoD vii. Provide HoD with written review of teaching, including Statement of Academic Director (TAC, Appen- TRC dix A, document 3) viii. Provide HoD with written review of research program and papers, including nomination of external RRC reviewers, and outreach activities (if applicable) ix. HoD writes an evaluation of the candidate’s citizenship HoD x. Organize a departmental meeting with department members to decide whether to continue and (if HoD, department members so) which external reviewers to ask for letters, based on the preliminary portfolio and the teaching, EOR research, outreach (if applicable), and citizenship reviews, and the criteria in Section VI. The department members invited to the meeting are those who have at least the position the candi- date is applying for (all tenured associate and full professors for a tenure and promotion to associate professor decision, etc.) xi. If ok, continue with xii; if not, inform candidate HoD xii. Obtain letters from at least three external reviewers (TAC, Appendix A, document 5); see (d) HoD xiii. Consult RRC on letters and decide on bringing case to AC HoD xiv. If ok, continue with xv; if not, inform candidate HoD Steps 3-6: Submission request promotion/award of tenure to AC; final decision xiv. Write recommendation to AC (TAC, Appendix A, document 1), compile final portfolio, and submit HoD portfolio to dean Make final decision on request following TiSEM procedure AC, Dean, Exec. Board (pro- motion to full prof. only) xv. Inform candidate and department HoD Notes: a. Following TAC, Section 4, a candidate can ask the HoD of three or more (if many papers need review) tenured to start the tenure and promotion procedure at any TiSEM faculty members who have not been the candi- stage in their career. The HoD should proactively ap- date’s PhD advisor or coauthor. It is chaired by a member proach candidates if they do not timely ask for tenure or of the EOR department and at least half of the other com- promotion. In particular, the tenure process should start mittee members are from the EOR department as well. no later than the fifth year of the tenure track. d. TRC and RRC are separate committees, but may have b. The ad hoc teaching review committee (TRC) consists of members in common. three Academic Directors and/or tenured TiSEM faculty e. Following TAC, Section 4, the external reviewers “should members, including at least one Academic Director of a be scholars from top universities who are leaders in their program in which the candidate has taught and at most field, but preferably not supervisors or co-authors.” The one non-EOR member. It is chaired by a member of the HoD will make sure to obtain letters from at least three EOR department. reviewers who are not supervisors or coauthors. c. The ad hoc research review committee (RRC) consists Tenure and promotion policies at the Department of Economics 3 • Criteria: Research VI. Criteria criteria for “very good” and “excellent” research, teaching, and outreach in Sections VI.1 – VI.3 and describe a “good” The department evaluates the portfolio in four dimensions: citizen in Section VI.4. The final decision combines the four research, teaching, outreach, and citizenship. We discuss the dimensions as follows. For award of tenure and promotion to associate professor, candidates must be • very good in both research and teaching, • excellent in at least one of research or teaching, and • good citizens. For promotion to professor 2 or professor 1, candidates must be • very good in both research and teaching; • excellent in at least one of research, teaching, and outreach; and • good citizens. VI.1. Research finance, and the School’s other fields. Group members may specialize in one of these areas, but often find value Following TiSEM’s strategy, quality trumps quantity of re- in combining two or more of them and always keep an search. This requires a substantive assessment of the candi- eye on applied relevance to economics and business. date’s actual research output based on careful reading (by the Therefore, the journal list contains the highest ranked RRC) of all research papers in the candidate’s portfolio. To (see 2) journals in the Web of Science (WoS) category offer objective guidance while leaving room for such a sub- Economics and selected high ranked journals in the WoS stantive assessment, we specify category Statistics and Probability. The OR group has the eponymous focus. Its journal list contains the highest 1. necessary bibliometric conditions for tenure and promo- ranked journals in the WoS category Operations Re- tion and search and Management Science and selected journals 2. examples of research profiles of (un)successful tenure in the WoS categories Mathematics and Mathematics, and promotion cases, Applied. but no sufficient conditions. For simplicity, the necessary 2. Journals are ranked by Article Influence Score AIS;( conditions are stated in terms of “first tier” and “second http://www.eigenfactor.org). tier” journals, which are selected, at five-year intervals and 3. The AIS is an easily available and objective measure of separately for Econometrics and OR, based on the following impact, which well reflects the perceived journal quality principles. in the profession (Abbring et al., 2014). 4. First tier journals are the best relevant journals. They in- 1. We include only, and enough, journals relevant to each clude those journals to which we would typically expect research group. The Department’s research focuses on researchers in each group to submit first. quantitative methods in economics and business. The 5.