Navigating the Demands of Tenure-Track Positions.

Navigating a tenure-track position can sometimes feel like walking the high wire, teetering from side to side wondering when that next overload course, research paper, or service project will topple you from your scholarly perch. Many of these positions lack significant formalized mentorship and guidance to help navigate and balance the workload of academia. Even with experience, the tenure and promotion process can be ambiguous. Workload balance is imperative to achieve tenure and promotion. Once you are in a tenure-track position, it is important to balance and understand the tenure and promotion process and its value. We provide a roadmap for early career academic professionals on how to balance their teaching, research, and service to obtain tenure and promotion. We inform the next generation of academicians about how researchers address public health problems through teaching, scholarship, and service. Finally, we explore five critical areas relevant to successful tenure and promotion: (a) classification and organizational culture, (b) the "Big Three" (teaching, research, and service), (c) professional development and network, (d) mentorship, and (e) work-life balance.

Experiences of new tenure-track PhD-prepared faculty: a scoping review.

The purpose of this scoping review was to assess the state of the literature concerning the experiences of new PhD-prepared tenure-track faculty, with a keen interest in nursing faculty. Effective recruitment and retention strategies for new nursing academic faculty need to be found and implemented. A literature review based on Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework for scoping reviews was undertaken. Using the PRISMA protocol, a systematic literature search was conducted in seven databases of studies published in English. Based upon inclusion criteria and relevance, 13 studies out of 90 papers were included in this study. Themes identified from the studies were transitioning to academia, developing a research program, balancing work and life, and perceived inequity. The research was predominately American and Canadian based. Several gaps in the literature were identified. Further research is critical to make recommendations to key stakeholders for recruitment and retention strategies.

Strategies and Tactics for Achieving Work-Life Integration as a Junior Faculty Member.

Staying balanced: In this Science Voices article, Prof. Steven Townsend addresses strategies for obtaining a healthy start in academic careers and the provides a personal insight on assessing priorities and obtaining work-life integration as an independent researcher.

There are alternatives. Models for sustainable employment structures in the German system of higher education.

The German system of higher education and public research is characterized by a high rate of temporary contracts with short contract durations and a nearly complete absence of structured career options. About 82% of employees not holding a full professorship have fixed-term contracts, with an average contract period of 20 months. This is facilitated by a special fixed-term employment law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz) which universities and other public research institutions have stretched to its limits. Against the background of a survey which we conducted in 2021 and whose results once more demonstrate the shortcomings of this system, we discuss alternative options in the form of model calculations. We propose a reform of employment structures and career paths that could improve not only personal working conditions but also ensure the quality of research and teaching in German academia. By quantitative comparison with the current employment situation, our model calculation demonstrates that plannable career decisions can be enabled at an early stage without changing budgets or teaching duties. We also show that the counter argument of a "congestion" of positions is not substantiated, and that young scholars will still have the opportunity to start a career in the reformed system, while the total number of employees can be kept nearly constant.

Facilitators and Barriers to Developing a Research Program: A Focused Ethnography of New Tenure-Track PhD-Prepared Nursing Faculty.

BACKGROUND: Creating a research program is a critical requirement for new PhD-prepared tenure-track nursing faculty in Canada. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to present key findings of new faculty members focusing on facilitators and barriers to development of their research program. METHOD: We conducted focused ethnography research examining the experience of 17 new faculty members from across Canada. RESULTS: The following themes were identified: teaching release, preparation from PhD program, intense feelings, supports and processes, mentoring, obtaining grants, and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for practice include identifying ways to facilitate faculty retention as they develop their research program. This research will be of interest to deans of nursing and new faculty members.

Embracing midcareer in the tenure system.

Midcareer faculty are the "keystone" of academia. Faculty in midcareer experience an increase or change in responsibilities and expectations as well as reduced support and mentorship usually extended to junior faculty. Nonetheless, midcareer can be an ideal time for re-evaluating and defining one's career path and taking advantage of leadership and service opportunities. Successful navigation of midcareer is essential to ensure nursing faculty remain in the academic setting, contribute to nursing science, and have a satisfying career. In this paper, we present strategies midcareer nurse faculty can consider to maintain balance and advance their careers even during challenging times. These strategies include appraising career goals, maintaining and expanding mentoring relationships, seeking and utilizing opportunities for leadership development, selecting service strategically to advance career goals, preparing for the unexpected, maintaining/expanding scholarly productivity, learning when to say yes or no, embracing lifelong learning, and improving visibility of one's work.

The tenure track employment system in colleges and universities in China: a scoping review of the Chinese literature.

Chinese higher education institutions have adopted a US-style tenure track system since the 1990s. This is an important reform aimed at modernizing China's higher education system. In response, authors have begun to carry out close examination of the career system and analyse its implications in a national context (Republic of China). This study aims to present the key research themes, identify research gaps and offer recommendations from the increasing pool of Chinese-language literature on the tenure track system. A scoping review of Chinese language papers was conducted using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (including the China Academic Journals Full-text Database, China Core Newspapers Full-text Database, China Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database, China Masters' Thesis Full-text Database, and China Yearbooks Full-text Database) (CNKI) database. Four major research themes were identified in Chinese discourse: (1) examining the tenure track system, (2) providing suggestions for better adaptation of the tenure track system in the Chinese context, (3) analysing the negative effects of the tenure track system, and (4) analysing the positive effects of the tenure track system. Generally, authors were concerned with the adaptation and cultivation of the US-originated tenure track system in the Chinese context and emphasized the importance of acknowledging its perceived negative influences on early-career scholars who have not received adequate attention. Overall, the authors demonstrate increasing interest in the tenure track system in China, and the literature is of variable quality. Further empirical studies are needed to analyse, evaluate and guide future improvement of the career system in the Chinese context in practice.

Evaluation of Scholarship Motivators and Barriers for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in a Department of Pharmacy Practice.

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards 2016 set explicit expectations for faculty scholarship. However, many non-tenure-track faculty have struggled with the scholarship portion of the academic tripart mission of clinical practice, teaching, and scholarship. Therefore, we sought to identify themes regarding the barriers, motivators, and potential solutions associated with non-tenure-track faculty scholarship. Four focus group interviews were held via videoconference during July 2021, which consisted of non-tenure-track faculty within the TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy. Each focus group answered a standard script of questions that were evaluated for face validity over a 30-60 min session. Twenty-two non-tenure-track faculty members (47% response) participated in one of the four focus group interviews. The four common barriers were insufficient time, lack of acknowledgment, obscurity of scholarship expectations, and a lack of resources and support. Scholarship's lasting impact on academia, students, and clinical practice was the one common motivator identified by the groups. The barriers identified were not unique to our faculty, despite the unique four-city structure of our program. Actions have continued to be taken to help address the barriers and potential solutions identified by the focus groups. In summary, our results echo that non-tenure-track faculty need more time and training to help them feel like they can meet institutional scholarship requirements.

Exploring Gender Bias in Six Key Domains of Academic Science: An Adversarial Collaboration.

We synthesized the vast, contradictory scholarly literature on gender bias in academic science from 2000 to 2020. In the most prestigious journals and media outlets, which influence many people's opinions about sexism, bias is frequently portrayed as an omnipresent factor limiting women's progress in the tenure-track academy. Claims and counterclaims regarding the presence or absence of sexism span a range of evaluation contexts. Our approach relied on a combination of meta-analysis and analytic dissection. We evaluated the empirical evidence for gender bias in six key contexts in the tenure-track academy: (a) tenure-track hiring, (b) grant funding, (c) teaching ratings, (d) journal acceptances, (e) salaries, and (f) recommendation letters. We also explored the gender gap in a seventh area, journal productivity, because it can moderate bias in other contexts. We focused on these specific domains, in which sexism has most often been alleged to be pervasive, because they represent important types of evaluation, and the extensive research corpus within these domains provides sufficient quantitative data for comprehensive analysis. Contrary to the omnipresent claims of sexism in these domains appearing in top journals and the media, our findings show that tenure-track women are at parity with tenure-track men in three domains (grant funding, journal acceptances, and recommendation letters) and are advantaged over men in a fourth domain (hiring). For teaching ratings and salaries, we found evidence of bias against women; although gender gaps in salary were much smaller than often claimed, they were nevertheless concerning. Even in the four domains in which we failed to find evidence of sexism disadvantaging women, we nevertheless acknowledge that broad societal structural factors may still impede women's advancement in academic science. Given the substantial resources directed toward reducing gender bias in academic science, it is imperative to develop a clear understanding of when and where such efforts are justified and of how resources can best be directed to mitigate sexism when and where it exists.

Are we failing female and racialized academics? A Canadian national survey examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tenure and tenure-track faculty.

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused the abrupt curtailment of on-campus research activities that amplified impacts experienced by female and racialized faculty. In this mixed-method study, we systematically and strategically unpack the impact of the shift of academic work environments to remote settings on tenured and tenure-track faculty in Canada. Our quantitative analysis demonstrated that female and racialized faculty experienced higher levels of stress, social isolation and lower well-being. Fewer women faculty felt support for health and wellness. Our qualitative data highlighted substantial gender inequities reported by female faculty such as increased caregiving burden that affected their research productivity. The most pronounced impacts were felt among pre-tenured female faculty. The present study urges university administration to take further action to support female and racialized faculty through substantial organizational change and reform. Given the disproportionate toll that female and racialized faculty experienced, we suggest a novel approach that include three dimensions of change: (1) establishing quantitative metrics to assess and evaluate pandemic-induced impact on research productivity, health and well-being, (2) coordinating collaborative responses with faculty unions across the nation to mitigate systemic inequities, and (3) strategically implementing a storytelling approach to amplify the experiences of marginalized populations such as women or racialized faculty and include those experiences as part of recommendations for change.

What Does It Mean to Be a Clinical Track Faculty Member in Public Health? A Survey of Clinical Track Faculty Across the United States.

OBJECTIVES: The clinical professor track has expanded and reflects a trend toward hiring non-tenure-track faculty in public health; however, little is known about this track. We documented characteristics of clinical faculty at US schools of public health. METHODS: We surveyed clinical faculty at Council on Education for Public Health-accredited schools of public health in the United States in 2019, identified via each school's website. We invited faculty (n = 264) who had the word clinical in their title (ie, apparently eligible faculty), had a working email address, and were not authors of this article to provide information about their rank, degree credentials, expectations for teaching, service, research and practice, and promotion criteria at their institution. In addition, we used open-ended responses to explain and contextualize quantitative data. RESULTS: Of 264 apparently eligible faculty surveyed, 88 (33.3%) responded. We included 81 eligible clinical faculty in our final sample, of whom 46 (56.8%) were assistant professors and 72 (88.9%) had a terminal degree; 57 of 80 (71.3%) had an initial contract of ≤2 years or no contract. Most clinical faculty listed service (96.2%), teaching (95.0%), and student advising/mentoring (86.3%) as duties; fewer clinical faculty reported research (55.0%), practice (33.8%), or clinic (7.5%) duties. Only 37.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that promotion policies for clinical track faculty were clear. CONCLUSIONS: If most clinical faculty are at the lowest academic rank, with short contracts and unclear expectations, it will be difficult for clinical faculty to advance and challenging for schools of public health to benefit from this track. Clear institutional expectations for scope of work and promotion may enhance the contribution of clinical faculty to schools of public health and help define this track.

Exploring alternative forms of scholarship for nurse educators' success.

BACKGROUND: Teaching-intensive universities require faculty to have increased teaching workloads. Nursing faculty have additional burdens that faculty members in other disciplines and departments do not experience, making it difficult to produce scholarship as it has been traditionally defined in research-intensive universities. Teaching-intensive universities should begin to rethink nursing faculty expectations for meeting their universities' missions of scholarship, especially those required for tenure. PURPOSE: This article discusses alternative forms of scholarship and to generate ideas beyond the gold standard of writing peer-reviewed manuscripts and conducting empirical research studies for teaching-intensive universities. It also explores challenges that hinder nursing faculty from scholarly work and offers various scholarship ideas for nursing faculty and nursing administrators to consider for promotion and tenure criteria. RECOMMENDATIONS: Nursing administrators and faculty can change the current culture through a reconceptualization of Boyer's scholarship model in which more innovative forms of scholarship are embraced to support nursing faculty in balancing the multiple demands on their time according to their respective institutional needs. The outcome is increased work-life balance and retention of nursing faculty. Deans' support and faculty advocacy for human resources and financial investment in faculty workload boundaries are key factors for future changes in practice.

Taking ownership of your career: professional development through experiential learning.

Experiential learning can facilitate the development of transferrable skills necessary for success in attaining tenure and promotion in academia. In this article, we discuss the benefits of designing and implementing an individualized professional development experience or practicum. By doing this, we describe the experiential learning component of the Accomplishing Career Transitions (ACT) Program of the American Society for Cell Biology. The ACT program aims to assist postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM as they strive to transition into tenure-track positions and ultimately attain tenure at research-intensive or teaching-intensive academic institutions.

Accomplishing Career Transitions 2019: facilitating success towards the professoriate.

The Minorities Affairs Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology through its Accomplishing Career Transitions (ACT) program aims to ease critical transitions for postdocs and junior faculty from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM or from minority-serving institutions as they work towards promotion and tenure at a wide range of academic institutions. The ACT program is a 2-year cohort-based professional and skills development program that kicks off with a summer workshop and continues with additional online training sessions on selected topics, forging the creation of a permanent mentoring community for the participants. In this BMC Proceedings Supplement, we highlight selected content from the first ACT summer workshop held in 2019 at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, NC. The goal of this BMC Proceedings Supplement is to amplify impact of ACT programming in a way that transcends the ACT Fellow community to benefit an increased number of scientists.

Facilitating Advancement of Clinical-Track Pharmacy Faculty Members.

Clinical faculty members in most pharmacy practice departments are expected to engage in practice, teaching, research and scholarship, and service. Although new clinical faculty members are typically well equipped to engage in the clinical practice aspect of their position, they generally lack experience in the other academic pillars and, depending on the institution, may not have dedicated time to engage in each area of effort, particularly research and scholarship. Consequently, achieving balance and realizing success in the tripartite mission of academia can be challenging. A multimodal approach can be used to facilitate advancement among clinical faculty members through faculty development and mentoring, attention to workload, clear expectations, and provision of feedback on performance and progression toward goals. This approach, which has been well received, has been associated with higher rates of promotion among clinical faculty members at one institution. Schools and colleges of pharmacy that value research and scholarship and are struggling to facilitate advancement among clinical faculty members may consider adopting some or all aspects of this program.

From clinical assistant to clinical associate professor: Examination of a sample of promotion guidelines.

INTRODUCTION: As accreditation standards for doctor of pharmacy programs have placed a greater emphasis on practice experiences, programs have a need for more clinical faculty. While clinical faculty are expected to achieve success in teaching, scholarly activity, and service, they tend to hold lower academic ranks and take more time to achieve promotion. This may be especially true when promotion guidelines lack clarity. METHODS: Guidelines for promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank for 10, research-intensive pharmacy programs were reviewed for predetermined factors in the areas of teaching, scholarly activity, and service using the following scale: required, desired, considered, not considered, or not specified. Some factors reviewed included: classroom teaching hours, number of clerkship students, types of scholarly activity considered, grantsmanship, and patient care services. RESULTS: There is significant variation in criteria utilized when considering promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank; few programs provide quantifiable requirements. All programs expect clinical faculty to participate in teaching. Only one program quantifies the amount of teaching expected. One program does not describe types of scholarly activity considered for promotion. No programs expect salary support from grants for clinical faculty. All programs consider direct patient care activities. CONCLUSIONS: A wide variety of criteria are considered when evaluating a clinical faculty member for promotion to the rank of associate professor. Clearly defined promotion criteria may help faculty direct their efforts toward activities that are recognized to ensure timely promotion.

Benefits of a concentrated teaching rotation: Perspectives of pharmacy residents and faculty.

The postgraduate pharmacy residency experience requires residents to develop the proper skillset to not only provide optimal therapeutic management to patients, but to effectively deliver their knowledge to trainees and other health care providers. Without specific recommendations for how to achieve these skills, residents may hone their communication, organizational, and teaching skills through a number of different venues currently offered by residency programs nationwide. Residency programs commonly offer a longitudinal experience in order for residents to obtain didactic teaching skills; less often do programs offer a concentrated rotation dedicated to academia. Residents can acquire a number of skills from a focused academic rotation including curriculum development, career growth, and preceptorship by following a schedule that more closely mimics that of a clinical faculty member. These skills are typically more difficult to develop with a longitudinal experience due to time constraints and other resident and faculty member commitments. Prior to implementing this experience, the impact on both the resident and faculty member should be taken into consideration.