63
votes
Asked to write a letter of recommendation for promotion for an abusive former professor
Get your former advisor to sign the letter now.
After that has succeeded or failed, you should contact the person who runs this process and ask them verbally how the letter will be used and what it ...
- 95.7k
45
votes
Assistant professor does not collaborate with or cite fellow department members, despite them being experts on the topic
You seem to think that an assistant professor should collaborate within your department. However, a more common view is that an assistant professor should be an independent researcher. An assistant ...
- 95.7k
39
votes
Accepted
Decline promotion because of teaching load
If you feel that 75% teaching load is more than you can handle, don't take the post. This is indeed a very large teaching load, significantly exceeding a more classical 40% teaching, 40% research and ...
- 53.1k
34
votes
Assistant professor does not collaborate with or cite fellow department members, despite them being experts on the topic
While collaboration is not a measure of success in the P&T process, the quality of the research conducted and published should be.
How do I guide, mentor this young faculty member through the ...
- 183k
22
votes
Accepted
Why was I offered an associate professorship after applying for an assistant professorship position? How will this be perceived?
UK perspective
(1) What do you make of this?
They think you are good enough to be recruited directly to the higher-ranking grade. It sounds reasonable in light of your seven years' postdoc ...
- 222
20
votes
Accepted
How are junior professors evaluated for promotion?
All of this is going to be very field- and country-specific. I will answer for biological/biomedical sciences at UK universities.
The career progression at most UK universities is:
Lecturer → Senior ...
- 35.6k
16
votes
Accepted
How can you argue that your leading publication venue is important?
I have been told by our head of department that those on the promotions panel will never have heard of FOCS, STOC and SODA and so this will just be compared with the number papers people publish in ...
- 98.2k
16
votes
How to evaluate researchers?
Where I work, everyone is evaluated according to some metrics. There are tons of metrics, from the number of articles, impact factors of the articles, citations, patents, grant money obtained, number ...
- 1,218
15
votes
Why was I offered an associate professorship after applying for an assistant professorship position? How will this be perceived?
In China academic positions are filled on the basis of publication record. If your total points (dependent on the impact factor of your published works) is higher than a particular number, you can ...
- 305
14
votes
Decline promotion because of teaching load
I don't know which country you are in, so things might be different. But in my country, if you want a permenant academic position, at some point or other, unless you are an absolute superstar, your ...
- 35.6k
11
votes
To what extent do academic promotions share similarities with promotions in industry?
They are really not very similar at all.
(This answer describes common structures at US universities.)
There are a number of very significant differences between "promotion" in academia and in ...
- 132k
11
votes
Asked to write a letter of recommendation for promotion for an abusive former professor
I read this with interest bc I had the same experience and felt the same way with one of my advisers who also happened to teach several of the classes for the program I was in. I was going to be a ...
- 111
11
votes
Decline promotion because of teaching load
Most answers so far have advised you to trust your gut instincts and turn the position down, essentially, and I think those are generally good answers. But for the sake of presenting an alternative ...
- 1,981
10
votes
How can you argue that your leading publication venue is important?
The site Conference Ranks helpfully compiles conference rankings from three sources. Two are "objective" (based on the citations) and the third is "subjective" (based on the opinions of people in the ...
- 20.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Benefits of being a guest editor of a journal?
Disciplines are typically organized in loose groups around a fairly small number of persons. They organize conferences, are editors, are on boards of professional organizations, etc. They are always ...
- 41.2k
10
votes
Is it exploitative that an institution offered me associate professor when I am qualified for full (and have been full at a previous institution)?
You cannot control what others do, but you can control what you do. In your case, you can just walk away from the application and say that it is below your dignity to consider a position that you ...
- 87.3k
9
votes
Accepted
How to handle severe illness in promotion and tenure reports?
(I'm very sorry for your troubles...)
To supplement other comments and answers:
In my experience (at R1 places in the U.S.), while mostly undergrads' and grad students' (broadly speaking) "...
- 85.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Asked to write a letter of recommendation for promotion for an abusive former professor
It seems that your core issue is that you've got three different things tangled up into one mess:
You want a letter from your former advisor to support your immigration process.
Your former advisor ...
- 2,317
9
votes
How to evaluate researchers?
The thing about evaluating people (for promotions, for raises, for annual feedback) is that every case is different. I've done that at two universities, for dozens of cases and the issue is ...
- 87.3k
8
votes
Is promotion from staff scientist to professor possible? (Considering job offer in US)
Probably you will not be considered for promotion to professor. But you could still apply for position of professor, either there or at other institutions. (It may be considered bad form to start ...
- 18k
7
votes
Is promotion from staff scientist to professor possible? (Considering job offer in US)
This might be possible, but only if you arrange it at the very beginning.
But first, note that "Full Professor" in Europe and "Professor" in the US mean very different things. "Full Professor" is ...
- 332k
6
votes
Accepted
Does the source of funding matter in determining academic promotion?
The point of assessing funding is not to ask, "Is this person funded today?" Rather, it's to ask, "Will this person be funded in five, ten, and fifteen years?"
And the point of asking about funding ...
- 13.4k
6
votes
How to communicate realistic expectations for science faculty research to administration
I'm assuming that, among other things, you want to help the college develop a realistic plan that can be fairly applied in the future.
First, a bit of background. The type of college that you ...
- 332k
6
votes
Why was I offered an associate professorship after applying for an assistant professorship position? How will this be perceived?
Different countries have different systems, and job titles do not always translate well across borders. I suspect most people looking at your (future) CV will not read too much into the fact that your ...
- 18k
6
votes
Decline promotion because of teaching load
You have good answers from the perspective of academia - a few thoughts about industry.
I also fear that moving to the industry will get even more challenging (I will then be in my mid-30s)
This is ...
- 7,676
5
votes
Personal contribution in N-author articles vs single author articles
There isn’t a precise rule about such things, but to the extent that one can formulate a general principle, I’d say that the credit for an N-author article would almost always be greater - often ...
- 183k
5
votes
How are junior professors evaluated for promotion?
In response to [research output] The professor might have his or her name on plenty of papers, but never as a first author. Presumably, the papers will look good on the postdocs' and PhD students' CV, ...
- 6,352
5
votes
Research promotions in the middle of post-doc contract
When I recruit postdoc it’s under the assumption that they are taking on a transitional role. In some sense I believe it’s in both our interests to have them leave sooner if possible. It’s good for ...
- 26.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Do teaching an advance course helps in evaluation and tenure?
Within my U.S. math department, teaching a successful, energetic, research-oriented graduate "topics" course is a plus inside the department. It is also essential, within the department, to have ...
- 85.4k
5
votes
How should a student address a professor in a letter of recommendation?
I wouldn't worry a lot about it. The worst that can happen is that part of the letter sounds a little off, but I'm sure promotion committees see much worse in letters from students, and understand it ...
- 21.6k
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