Preparing for P&T – FAQs

The criteria are provided by track and promotion or tenure action in the Faculty Tracks section of the website.

There are multiple sources for information and advice: your department chair, division chief, or mentor, or members of your department’s P&T committee, and the School of Medicine’s P&T committee. In addition, you can watch our P&T video modules and attend one of our “Polishing Your Portfolio” Zoom sessions in May.

Please see the P&T dossier page for guidance.

The candidate and department chair (or division chief) discuss the list of referees. The list will include internal referees, external referees, and independent referees. Each referee must be identified as originating from either the candidate or the chair. Please review the referee requirements for full information.

All School of Medicine faculty are encouraged to compile a Teaching Portfolio to document activities and accomplishments related to education in the health sciences.

Education is one of the three missions of the School of Medicine. Excellence in one of the three domains (Education, Research, Patient Care) is required for promotion to Associate Professor; excellence in two domains is required in order to achieve tenure or promotion to Professor. Demonstration of educational excellence will therefore be required for everyone on the Academic Investigator or Clinician Educator tracks and may be chosen as one of the two domains of excellence for those on the Clinician Investigator track. Thorough documentation of your performance is essential for demonstration of excellence.

Please refer to the Teaching Portfolio page for details.

This is dependent upon your department, your role, and your job description. For more information regarding clinical excellence specific to your role and job description, you may consult with your department chair, division chief, the chair of your department’s P&T Committee, or current members of the SOM P&T Committee. Please refer to the Clinical Portfolio page for details.

Please refer to the Research Portfolio page for details.

Excellence includes:

• Peer-reviewed publications, as documented in your CV, including numbers of citations. The Health Sciences Library can help you find this information. Please see their DIY guide, or request a consultation.
• Extramural and intramural research funding.
• Documented impact such as invited publications and invited extramural presentations
• Further information regarding research excellence, by track, is available in the P&T Policy or on the Faculty Tracks page.

• Briefly list your collaborations in the Research Activities section of the CV. The nature of contributions should be described in the annotations to your publications in the CV.
• You may wish to highlight important collaborations in your personal statement and in the introduction to your Research Portfolio.
• Document your role as co-investigator on research projects.
• Documented by statements in your internal and external letters of reference.

Promotion and the award of tenure for Academic Investigators and Clinician Investigators requires funding from NIH R01 grants or comparable grants.

For faculty in tracks dependent upon research excellence, and who demonstrate sufficient funding credentials for the requested promotion, evidence that a proposal was highly evaluated is favorable, but does not stand alone.

• Invitations to speak at other institutions; or at regional, national, or international meetings
• Study sections and grant-review panels
• Editorships and membership on editorial boards
• Replication of clinical, research, or educational models at other universities or institutions
• Invited expert testimony for governmental agencies
• Leadership roles in regional, national, or international societies
• National Board memberships, or role as examiner or question writer
• Named lectureships
• Awards
• Invited publications
• Evidence of impact of your publications

Refer to this article: How to Create an APA Style Reference for a Canceled Conference Presentation.

Publication record, as documented in your CV, should demonstrate continued scholarship. Further, publications are evaluated by their impact on the field as evidenced by the number of your peer-reviewed papers and the citation record of your papers. Other evidence of impact may include comments in the letters of reference and documentation of honors accorded because of the impact of your publications. Reprints submitted in the dossier should be accompanied by a brief explanation of why the publication is considered impactful.

The Health Sciences Library can quickly and easily help you find this information. Please see their DIY guide, or request a consultation.

This is an integral of quality and quantity, related to both your rank and track, so there is no single magic number. Please note: a few papers in premier journals may count as much as many papers in journals of moderate rank.

Invited publications may speak to regional or national reputation. However, peer-reviewed publications are essential for promotion on the AI and CI track.

Good citizenship implies participation in functional activities of your department and the School of Medicine. However, service on local committees is not highly weighted unless you serve in a leadership role or directly contribute to notable committee accomplishments. Note: Service on national committees is highly regarded and should be documented for proof of extramural reputation (see item 12 for more information).

If you enter the P&T process before your last year of eligibility (tenure track) or before your sixth year in rank (non-tenure track), your portfolio will be evaluated using the same criteria for your proposed rank and tenure status. Expectations for meeting criteria are not different.

If you apply for promotion to Associate Professor and tenure at the same time, the criteria will be for the award of tenure on your track.

The eligibility period for tenure is four years from the date of promotion, even if you were an Assistant Professor for less than six years. You are not granted additional eligibility time to achieve tenure.

Please review the SOM P&T Policy and your track criteria.

The candidate has the option to appeal to the dean, as documented in the P&T timeline. Departmental P&T Committees meet in September of each year. Department committees review candidate portfolios and notify candidates not recommended for advancement. Candidates not recommended for advancement must appeal to the Office of the Dean by early October.
Appeals to the Office of the Dean are reviewed by an ad hoc committee consisting of: the senior associate dean, the chair of the SOM P&T Committee, and a faculty member within the department and at the appropriate rank, as identified by the candidate.

The SOM P&T Committee deliberates based on all P&T application information, and then provides recommendations to the dean. Candidates not supported for advancement by the dean will be informed by February 6.

The department chair has the right to appeal unfavorable outcomes, but the appeal may only be based on the presentation of new information. Any candidate not recommended by the SOM P&T Committee may submit new information to their department chair. It is at the discretion of the chair to carry the appeal forward. Appeal documents must be submitted by the chair to the Office of the Dean by early January. See the P&T timeline for exact dates.

The guidelines are available here: Guidelines for Departmental P&T Committees.