These accomplishments may take the form of traditional scholarship and be measured by publication of significant articles, briefs, reviews, and books; they may also be achieved in other forms of distinguished scientific, artistic, professional, and creative production and performance. In order to be awarded tenure at this institution you must show evidence of a productive and independent creative mind; you must make significant, sustained contributions in your field; you must be continuously and effectively engaged in innovative creative activity of high quality and significance.

What you need to do, then, in order to meet these standards is to:

• Steadily conceive and pursue significant areas of new research, production, or performance in your field.

• Plan your time to allow sustained work on your individual projects while still meeting teaching and service obligations and standards.

• Establish a respected reputation in your field.

• Build a convincing record of these achievements.

In the University of Oregon Faculty Handbook, Chapter VI, "Special Conditions of Employment of Teaching Faculty...Criteria for Teaching-Faculty Evaluation", you will find a long list of "professional growth, scholarly activities, creative and artistic achievements" that are considered evidence of sustained contribution to one's field. Departments, schools, and colleges have also delineated what specifically is expected within their disciplines so that faculty know the criteria.

You should also discuss what constitutes research in your field with your department or unit head and with other members of your discipline in and beyond this university. You need to understand early the expectations and standards of performance by which you will be evaluated. Conversely, if your field of study is highly specialized or you are the only expert on campus in that area, you may wish to discuss with your unit head the forms, forums, and areas of innovative work in your field.

Developing a scholarly program

Your scholarly contributions will be evaluated for evidence of growth, impact on the field (for example, work that opens new lines of investigation), and future promise. Often this means your work needs to be programmatic or progressive -- it is expected to unfold, with one contribution leading to another. Hence, one is continually faced with choices about what to do next.

Each discipline is unique in terms of what kind of scholarly contribution is most valued, be it a book or journal articles, be it empirical or theoretical work. Your colleagues and department head can advise you about these criteria for achievement, and we urge you to choose wisely about shaping the direction and scope of your scholarly activities. Whatever the particular track you follow, you should be sure to work in ways that clearly identify you and your intellectual contributions in moving forward the agenda of your discipline.

In spite of the diversity in scholarly expectations, several rules hold across most disciplines.

1. In most cases, publication of general-audience books and textbooks does not count heavily as scholarly contribution. The writing of a textbook is generally viewed as a teaching rather than a scholarly activity, unless reviews or colleagues' letters attest to its scholarly contributions. Highly original texts for general audiences are taken seriously in programs such as journalism and creative writing if they are highly acclaimed. The burden of the proof of scholarly value is upon you.

2. Invited chapters do not count as much as articles in refereed journals in fields where journal publication is important since some edited books do not undergo the rigorous peer review that journals require.

3. Work that is redundant, derivative, or too narrow in scope might not be considered a significant contribution. Conversely, work that contains too many unrelated interests may be seen as dabbling and as lacking theme or focus.

4. Work done in collaboration with someone else, in particular senior colleagues, is difficult to evaluate; questions might be raised about the nature of your independent contribution. Hence, you, research colleagues, and peers in your profession will need to be able to document your individual contributions. In some fields, this is done strictly by order of authorship, but additional information on the details of the contributions are typically necessary. If in your field almost all work is co-authored, it is important to be clearly identified as the primary author on some work.

5. Work in newly defined, unconventional, or interdisciplinary fields is also more difficult to evaluate. Discuss with your department head and dean ways to publish significant work of this nature. In order to establish your credentials, it might be necessary to publish at least some mainstream contributions.

6. Sporadic, especially "wonderful but fifth year only," work does not constitute sustained contribution to one's field. A record of production that looks like a "pre-tenure bubble" might be difficult to support.

   
   

   Early in your career here, find out from your department head, or even from the dean, what your discipline expects in the way of publication or performance and plan your research goals with those expectations in mind.

   Preparing for publication, performance, or exhibition

   You will be faced constantly with choices about where, when, and what to publish, perform, or exhibit. There are several aspects to think about in this choice.

   Prestige
   Get to know the leading publications in your field and in related sub-fields. Prepare your work for the most significant and appropriate outlets in your field. If, for example, journal publication is important in your field, send your work first to the most respected peer-reviewed journal. The prestige of the journals where you publish influences the assessment of your reputation.

   Likewise, for those fields that are primarily book oriented, pay attention to which publishers are regarded as strong in your area. Submit your book manuscripts to those top presses, since the quality of your publisher will make a difference at evaluation time, not to mention a difference in your overall career and professional standing.

   Audience
   In choosing to which journal or press to approach, make conscious decisions about the particular audience you want your work to reach. If your work is interdisciplinary, or if it has implications for a variety of subfields within your discipline, or if it has applied implication (for teachers, for example), you might want to have some papers or publications which address each of these audiences.

   Timing
   Publish your work as promptly as you can so that wide groups of scholars and professionals can learn about it, cite it, and provide helpful critical responses which will aid in shaping your future work. How often your work is cited, and by whom, will become a measure of the impact of your work. Begin the process of building visibility early and keep the door open for important criticism that you may need to respond to in your work. Do not wait until a book is completely finished before earmarking a piece (perhaps a pilot piece) for professional communication. On the other hand, avoid publishing too many small, incomplete pieces of work which in and of themselves might not be considered significant.

   Polish
   Have your manuscript in good shape in format as well as in substance before submitting it for publication, keeping in mind, however, that extreme perfectionism is not a useful expenditure of time given the fact that most journal reviewers ask for some revisions by the author.

   Engage the most respected scholars in your own or other departments in all stages of your research, writing, and publication. Colleagues can be very helpful about the criteria for achievement in the field and about the reputation of journals in your field and in related sub-disciplines. To the extent possible, develop professional relationships which involve reading and commenting upon each other's draft manuscripts. This kind of reaction and response will help you get your written work in the best possible shape before submission to refereed journals. Indeed, the high quality of your departmental peers is one of the principal reasons to be at an AAU university like the University of Oregon. Using one another's expertise can be very beneficial and mutually rewarding.

   In fields where publishing is not the norm, discuss with successful colleagues the kinds of galleries, theaters, or other venues you should use, which are the equivalents, in a sense, of high quality presses and refereed journals.

   Budgeting one's time to make research a priority

   The professional role of a faculty member in a major research university focuses on research and teaching, but also includes administration, professional and public service, and in some cases, applied activities such as clinical practice.

   
   

   The foremost concern for junior faculty is to show evidence of a productive and creative mind, primarily through your published research; or in fields like art, dance, journalism, architecture, music, literature, and drama, through continuous and effective engagement in distinguished unique creative activity of high quality and significance.

   Faced with this array of multiple responsibilities, you also face making daily decisions concerning participation: what meetings should you attend and in what aspects of organizational life should you become involved?

   In addition, the university structure is set up primarily around your teaching functions. Your daily life is most visibly organized around the academic calendar, that is, when classes begin, when courses meet, and when grades are due. Moreover, the UO quarter schedule allows no lengthy chunk of time free from classes during the school year.

   So the responsibility falls on you to organize your year to make room for your own scholarly or creative accomplishments. Plan what you can accomplish during the teaching year and what you can do only in the periods free from teaching. Develop an overall five-year plan for your own scholarly development, with each year spent working toward a subset of your overall goals. Plan what you want to accomplish by the pre-tenure review and what you need to have completed by the time of tenure evaluation.

   How can you manage all this?

   1. Develop a research agenda:

   • Looking at the academic calendar, plan time during terms and courses to collect data. For example, if you are faced with particularly heavy teaching responsibilities one term, determine when you can make time weekly to collect data or to do library research so that when more open blocks of time become available to you, you are ready to begin writing.

   • Looking at the calendar year, block out times to write, and make sure you are ready to do so when those designated periods of time arrive.

   • Keep in mind the yearly cycle of deadlines for conference and grant-proposed submissions and any annual deadlines for papers. Keep in mind the long timeline involved in abstracts for meetings and the prolonged process of first piloting or testing material and ideas at conferences and later submitting them for publication.

   • Discuss with your department head the possibility of a teaching load that might better accommodate your research needs. Having a smaller size class or a repeat class, for example, can be a great help at some career stages.

   2. Protect your research agenda:

   • Consider those weekly blocks of time to work on your own research activities just as inviolable as your teaching hours: do not give them up. For example, in scheduling student appointments, keep a reasonable number of hours open for students, but keep to your own scheduled research hours as well.

   • Earmark sufficient and high-quality time for your own scholarly activities. Some people work best in whole day blocks of time; others find mornings the best time to write. Although the scheduling of classes must be aimed first at student needs, work within reasonable alternatives in scheduling your classes. Schedule meetings and appointments with these considerations in mind to the extent possible. Use these times well. Do not use these precious blocks of time to do other work that has spilled over into the time allotted to your own research. Guard your research times as if they are actual classes or appointments and cannot be rescheduled.

   • Even early in your career you may be called upon to do committee and administrative service. While this work is useful and important both to you and to the university, you also have to carefully monitor your workload. It is better to pull your weight on a small number of committees than to be on many only as a "phantom" or unreliable participant. If you are having trouble drawing these lines or if you feel you are being over-selected, consult your department head or your dean for help.

   3. Try to arrange for some leave time in order to maximize your opportunities to work on your research.

   • Apply for a grant with some release time from teaching, or for a Summer Research Award, which would allow for a non-teaching summer free to write or pursue your research. To apply for a Summer Research Award, contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Riverfront Research Park (ext. 5131). The application deadline is late November or early December.

   • Familiarize yourself with the kinds of grants and fellowships available to scholars in your field and at your career stage; pursue appropriate opportunities aggressively. Here again, colleagues and unit heads can be helpful and knowledgeable.

   • Faculty who are members of under-represented groups often face extraordinary demands (committee service, community activities, etc.). It is especially important for such faculty to take full advantage of the advice and resources designed to promote scholarly productivity.

   • By developing a long-term plan and then actively designating time for your research, you can build a research program that has room and time to grow and have the time to develop and complete it.
   Building a professional reputation
   1. In the university community:

      Get to know your departmental colleagues and those colleagues elsewhere in the university who do work related to your own. Your colleagues' familiarity with your work is vital. You should not forget that they will be called upon to evaluate your contribution to your department and your discipline at future stages of your career. They need to know your scholarly and professional work; they also need to have a sense of you as a lively, responsive, thinking scholar and professional.

      Colleagues can put you in contact with other professionals, on this campus and beyond, who are interested in and knowledgeable about your field; they can suggest your name for a variety of professional opportunities on campus and beyond. Colleagues can also help by talking over your research and teaching ideas with you, encouraging you about what is new enough and valuable enough to write, formally advising on the best journals, and also reading and criticizing drafts.

      How do you get to know your colleagues?

      • Know their work: read their recent work and discuss it with them. Even professionally secure colleagues like to know that their research is stimulating to others and that they are not being ignored by the next generation.

      • Attend department or university-wide lectures that they give.

      • Join or initiate lunch time and over-coffee discussions.

      • Seek your colleagues' advice about your work. If you hesitate to overburden them when asking them to read a draft, specify a section or a topic that you would like their comments on.

      • If your department holds colloquia, ask to give a presentation, especially if your plans include a talk at a subsequent professional meeting: you have here an excellent opportunity to rehearse that talk before a friendly audience.

      • Offer to give a guest lecture in colleagues' classes in areas where you have unique knowledge and insight.

      • Serve on departmental committees where you can develop collegial relationships, picking and choosing carefully, however, in your early years since you must at the same time keep a wary eye on the time commitment involved.

      • If your department has a faculty mentoring program, do all you can to establish rapport with your mentor. If that relationship does not work to your satisfaction, seek another mentor.

      • Talk to your department head regularly. Your head is, by virtue of the position he or she is holding, very interested in seeing your career move forward in a timely fashion. He or she can be a very helpful resource in your development as a scholar and professional and will play an important role in your evaluation. You need to keep the department head informed about your accomplishments and you need the head's support in making choices. You also need to consult the head about any potential problems. If, for example, you feel that there is a bias against you, your field, or your methodology, or you perceive reservations about your performance or productivity in your department, talk through those concerns to find ways to resolve the situation.

      2. Within a national and international network of colleagues: Your national and international reputation as a scholar will play an important part in your evaluation for tenure. Gaining that positive reputation during the relatively short period of time before the tenure review requires some careful planning. One of the most important steps to developing visibility has been discussed earlier: publish in highly regarded refereed journals, or with high quality presses, as appropriate.

         Additional ways to improve your reputation outside the UO include:

      • Attend meetings and conferences where you can establish contacts.

      • Present papers at conferences. Conference paper presentation generally requires less lead time than journal publication; while such papers are not weighted as heavily in the tenure-review process as are publications in refereed journals, presentations do make your work known and allow you feedback that may be valuable in producing a superior piece for publication in a respected journal. Your presentation will also give your senior peers from other institutions a glimpse of your teaching capabilities.

      • Participate in selected regional meetings where you can engage in serious intellectual discussion with colleagues.

      • Participate in national or regional networks of colleagues in your particular area of specialty. Or set up a conference or interest group to facilitate building such a network if none exists.

      • Establish mail, electronic, and phone contact with professionals beyond this campus who are involved in work similar to or related to your own. Interact with them in the same mutually helpful ways you do with your colleagues on campus.

        Again you need to strike a balance: in your early years you need to monitor the amount of time you spend on attendance at meetings, since these too can cut into your scholarly activities; yet the contacts you make are important for you professionally.

      Recordkeeping

      As noted earlier, you must not only build your reputation, but be able to provide ample evidence of it. So it is important that you keep a thorough record of your professional achievements, updating it regularly.

      • Keep a list of all published scholarly articles, reviews, chapters, and books, making clear which journals are refereed and which are not.

      • Keep a list of creative work, juried exhibitions or compositions, and performances; keep tapes, programs, and published reviews of any creative performances.

      • Keep significant referees' comments on your articles.

      • Keep a list of all professional meetings, conferences, and symposia in which you have played some role - organizer, chair, invited speaker, discussant, presenter.

      • Keep a list of all grants, awards, honors, invited talks, and contracts you have received.

      • Keep a list of involvement with professional associations, especially offices held, committee and panel service, or other evidence of professional stature or service at regional, national, and international level.
      Questions you might want to ask early
      • What constitutes research for members of your department and college?

      • To what degree does professional service or performance serve as evidence of contribution to new knowledge in your particular field?

      • What are the qualitative and quantitative differences in regard to the weight given to publications, journals, or creative activities such as performances?

      • What mix of scholarship, production, and performance is expected in your particular field?

      • Which forums are the most highly regarded?

      • Is joint work valued as highly as independent work?

      • How can you establish a clear record, in advance, of your contributions to joint research efforts and publications?

      • What role is played by research grants in promotion and tenure? In some disciplines, success in obtaining research grants is viewed as an important indicator of scholarly activity and promise. Faculty in these disciplines may devote significant time and effort in the pursuit of grants. Understanding the expectations, rewards and resources for grantsmanship can be extremely important.

      • Is external grant funding expected by your department, by your college or school?

      • Will grants enhance your likelihood of promotion and tenure, if so, how?

      • What resources are available on campus to support young scholars? What help is available for locating and applying for outside grant money?

      • Will you be penalized if you take unsupported time off for research, writing, or performing?