III. The Ten Steps for Promotion

Promotion in faculty rank is given by the Medical School and University of Michigan only after a lengthy process of evaluation involving your academic department, external evaluators, committees within the Medical School, the Dean, and for higher levels of the faculty ladder, the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs (EVPMA), the Provost, and the President. (Senior level promotions in the Instructional Track require further approval by the Board of Regents.)

These are some points that may help you initiate and navigate through this process.

1. Read the enclosed overview of our faculty structure and expectations (Medical School Faculty Model - 2002). More information can be found in the Faculty Handbook. http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/faculty/handbook/

2. Be certain that your CV conforms to our usual pattern and check it rigorously for precision, lack of duplication, typos etc. http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/faculty/cvguidelines.html

3. Do the same for your Educator's Portfolio. http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/teaching/

4. Once you understand the faculty structure and define your expectations, discuss your career path and timelines for promotion with your chair or the chair's delegate.

5. Utilize the Office of Faculty Affairs team freely for advice.

6. When you are ready for promotion give your chair the following items for your promotion file.

a.) CV
b.) Educator's Portfolio - If you have collected teaching evaluations, please be sure to give copies to your department chair.
c.) Talking Points - single page document that explains your career, accomplishments, goals, and brings out your strong points.
d.) Five pieces of your best work (usually peer reviewed papers).
e.) Your own bibliographic notes on these papers generally in a single page document that explains for each paper, why you selected the paper, any unique and seminal contributions, and exactly what was your contribution to the paper (including an explanation of the authorship position). Each paper should be keyed to its place in CV. The citation survey may be useful to demonstrate impact of some or all of your papers. The number of citation hits can be mentioned if this information is thought to give good evidence of impact. The URL to check on citations is as follows:

http://www.lib.umich.edu/taubman
· Click on Databases by Subject
· Under Medicine click on Science Citation Index (Web of Science)
· "Full Search/Science Citation Index Expanded/All Years/
Cited Ref Search/Author's Name/Lookup"

7. Your chair selects five external reviewers for an unbiased appraisal of you and your work - after reviewing your CV and papers. You can discuss this with the chair and offer some recommendations (pro and con) regarding evaluators. Your department's promotion committee reviews your promotion file.

8. The chair then submits the promotion package to the Office of Faculty Affairs by October 1. The Promotion Committees (these are, in a sense, juries of your peers) will discuss your work in detail, trying to reconcile your aspirations and productivity to the academic standards of the Medical School and University. It is important to note that academic promotion is generally not a reward for services rendered (educational, clinical, or investigational - these services are expected at a high level in your present job description). Promotion is the reward for scholarly work that adds significantly to your field. At the highest levels of our faculty ladder (professor, clinical professor, and senior research scientist) the University expects our faculty to be the academic leaders in their fields.
Once the promotion committees agree that promotion is justified, the Medical School Executive Committee undertakes a similar deliberation. The Dean and EVPMA must then concur.

9. Your promotion file, including a final letter from the Dean, is then sent to the Office of the Provost by March 1. The Provost reviews each package and may obtain broad consultation. Senior level promotions in the Instructional Track require further approval by the Board of Regents.

10. If all goes well, promotions will be effective officially on September 1, at the beginning of an academic year.