Promotion & Tenure
The promotion and tenure review process is approximately one year in length. It involves several stages, beginning with the submission of nomination materials to the Department of Medicine in early Spring and concluding with final recommendations by the University’s Board of Regents.
Promotion Information by Faculty Track
Within the Clinician track, faculty can be promoted for clinical excellence with a demonstrated regional/national reputation, in combination with academic participation (teaching is required, research is optional) and administrative service roles.
Clinician Track Statement: Describes the criteria for faculty appointment, promotion, and performance review.
Clinician Track Checklist: Tool for comparing faculty accomplishments against the promotion criteria
Within the Academic track, faculty select one academic area of excellence – either research, education, or clinical scholarship – to serve as the primary basis for their promotion. Each area of excellence has unique criteria, but all require peer-reviewed scholarship leading to regional/national recognition, in addition to education and service activities.
Academic Track Statement: Describes the criteria for faculty appointment, promotion, and performance review.
Academic Track Infographic: Presents an overview of the promotion requirements
Academic Track Grid: Provides a side-by-side comparison of specific promotion criteria for the three areas of academic excellence (focus).
Academic Track Checklists: Tools for comparing faculty accomplishments against the promotion criteria:
Within the Tenure track, faculty can be promoted for national/international distinction in teaching (which must include scholarly work in education) or in research (which is more common). Effective teaching and professional/institutional service are also required.
7.12 Statement (Tenure-Track and Tenured): Describes the criteria for faculty appointment, promotion, and performance review.
Dossier Components
Curriculum Vitae
- Two versions meet the promotion standards:
- How to Annotate a Bibliography
- Times Cited: Go to Manifold, load full faculty profile, change the date range for the journal articles, then click “Generate Citations”, the Scopus Citation Count is on the right
- Journal Impact Factor: Go to Clarivate Journal Citation Reports, type in the journal name, use the most current Journal Impact Factor available.
- Author Role: Indicate the candidate’s role in multi-author papers prior to 2018 Examples of role in multiple author publications: Guarantor of integrity of entire study, Developed study concept, Developed Study design, Defined intellectual content, Conducted literature research, Conducted experimental studies, Data acquisition, Manuscript preparation, Manuscript editing, Manuscript review
Candidate’s Narrative Statements
- The goal of the promotion narrative statement is to provide a cohesive narrative about your contributions to the mission of the Medical School. It is also a way of highlighting your focus (your primary mission area), your accomplishments and their impact on your field, and your future plans into one statement. There are three audiences for your narrative statement: colleagues in your department, reviewers in the promotion process who are not in your field, and your colleagues outside the institution who are asked to provide an objective review of your career and accomplishments.
- Tips from the Medical School:
- Start early – this is the most difficult part of your dossier!
- Colleagues not in your field will be reading this so avoid abbreviations and jargon.
- Do not rehash what is in your CV – the narrative statement puts the “story” behind your CV.
- Highlight the connections between your research/educational/clinical scholarship activity and your other activities – clinical service and/or other service.
- It is OK to explain gaps in time or things in your CV that may raise questions in the reviewers’ mind. Don’t let them make up the story for you, BUT be careful to always present yourself in a positive light i.e. “…someone left and I did 34 weeks of call so I couldn’t publish anything in 2016” vs. “ …there was an unexpected clinical need that I stepped in to help the Department meet. This delayed some key publications, but since 2016, I published three highly impactful manuscripts…”.
- Review - ask colleagues/mentors/lay people to read and critique your statement.
- You are promoted and/or awarded tenure on Scholarship and Education- spend the most time on those sections.
- For those on Academic Track – your area of focus should be explicitly stated (research, education, clinical care) but scholarship in your focus should be the bulk of the narrative statement.
- We suggest the following outline for Academic or Tenure Track (absolute maximum of 4 pages):
- Introductory paragraph: Give a broad overview of what your career(s) goal is/are. Provide an overview of your accomplishments to date and the impact they had on your field. Conclude the first paragraph with what you hope to accomplish and contribute to the excellence of the University of Minnesota Medical School in your new rank. [about a third of a page]
- Scholarly activity focus: (research or education) [label with this heading]: This should be about ⅔ of the document. Estimate of the percentage (%) of time spent in research/scholarship efforts. Why do you study what you do? Provide a high-level review of your accomplishments and the impact you have made on your field. Pick 2-3 major accomplishments and elaborate on each. [Aim for two pages]
- Education/teaching: [label with this heading]: Estimate of the percentage (%) of time spent in teaching/instructional/education effort. Provide a sentence or two about your educational philosophy. Provide the reviewers a broad overview of what you teach, who you teach, the effectiveness and impact of your teaching. [A third to half a page.]
*If you are going for promotion (Academic Track) or promotion with tenure based on educational scholarship, this section should go first and be about ⅔ of your statement.
- Service: [label with this heading]: For clinicians, provide the reviewers an overview of your clinical scope of practice and an estimate of the percentage (%) of time you spend in clinical care. Include how your clinical practice connects to your research or educational efforts, if applicable. [Short paragraph < ⅓ page.] When writing about your other service, do not repeat what is in your CV. Estimate the percentage (%) of time you spend in discipline-related, professional, and University service. Write about what impact your service contributions has on the institution, state, profession, and state/general population. [Short paragraph < ⅓ page.]
- Concluding paragraph: Consider re-stating your career goals, accomplishments, and what you will provide to the University and Medical School in the future in your new rank. [Short paragraph < 1/3 page]
- Clinician Track Narrative Statement (absolute maximum of 3 pages):
- The Candidate’s statement is a narrative indicating how the Candidate contributes to excellence at the University of Minnesota. It should include a description of the Candidate’s clinical expertise and unique contributions to the practice of medicine regionally, nationally and internationally (as appropriate). The Candidate should elaborate on clinical leadership responsibilities, professional societies, or other domains. The Candidate’s statement should also indicate the future plans for the Candidate’s contribution to excellence in clinical care at the University of Minnesota. The Candidate’s statement should include the Candidate’s educational contribution to the practice of outstanding clinical care, including a brief reflection on educational philosophy.
Teaching Experience and Effectiveness
- Peer Review of Teaching (PRTs): (3 Didactic required for Academic or Tenure Track)
- Go to Peer Review of Teaching- You must use the templates under: “Instruments for Conducting Peer Review”
- Tip: Send a colleague, which has witnessed one of your lectures/presentations, one of the template forms to complete and return to you.
- Teaching Table of undergraduate/graduate courses taught, including course number, title, brief description, quarter/semester, role, and number of students enrolled.
- Mentoring Training Table of persons trained /mentored /advised in research, degree sought, role as advisor, and status of advisee at time of training. Include the current position of these individuals, if known.
- Student Ratings of Teaching (SRTs): If applicable
- Go-to https://oms.umn.edu/srt/faculty/about
- Log into the online SRT system, EXPLORANCE BLUE, to check response rates
External Review and Evaluation
- Template
- Use this Guide to determine the differences between Arm’s Length vs Non Arm’s Length
- Tips:
- If the faculty member has been at the same institution at the same time as the reviewer, this is an automatic Non Arm’s Length Reviewer
- If the faculty member has published (or collaborated in any way outside of a national committee) with the reviewer, this is an automatic Non Arm’s Length Reviewer
- Reviewers cannot have a University of Minnesota appointment
- Reviewers must be at or above the proposed rank of the candidate
Internal Review and Evaluation
- Template
- Tips:
- Reviewers must have a University of Minnesota appointment
- Reviewers must be at or above the proposed rank of the candidate
- 360 Evaluations for Clinician Track
- List of 14-19 evaluators who are familiar with the candidate’s clinical work to evaluate them based on the ACGME list of clinical competencies (referenced in the CT statement).
Selected Reprints
- Three reprints should be selected to reflect significant contribution(s) of the candidate
- NOTE: In the case of multiple authorships, the contribution of the candidate to the project must be clearly established and reported within the CV.