Almost globally, faculty members at universities are unanimous when asked what impacts their careers most profoundly: Yes, it鈥檚 the quality of their research output, but it鈥檚 also external review letters. Considered by many higher education administrators to be the most important element of promotion and tenure decision making, these external review letters, written by independent scholars in the same discipline from other institutions, are meant to provide an objective evaluation of a candidate鈥檚 work. Despite playing a pivotal role in who gets to advance in a particular field of study and whose career comes to an abrupt halt, there is virtually no research on external review letters, until now.
The 91视频 has received a $177,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to examine the role of external review letters in the promotion and tenure process. 鈥淭his work contributes critically to the national discourse on diversity, equity and inclusion among higher education faculty,鈥� said Paula Short, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.
鈥淓xternal review letters serve a core gatekeeping function, so it is critical for us to understand whether these letters are indeed fair and objective indicators of someone鈥檚 career success, or if extraneous factors impact their content,鈥� said Erika Henderson, UH associate provost for recruitment, retention, equity and diversity, and member of the research team.
According to pilot data examined by the research team as part of their proposal to the Sloan Foundation, the language used in external review letters can predict how promotion and tenure committees will vote. However, when the team examined the data for evidence of bias, they found the research productivity of the candidate up for promotion was less related to language than the characteristics of the letter writer, such as gender and the letter writer鈥檚 own research productivity.
鈥淲e were quite surprised by the findings,鈥� said Juan Madera, professor at UH鈥檚 Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and a co-investigator on the project. 鈥淲e had anticipated close relationships between promotion candidate productivity and letter content, but that鈥檚 not what we found.鈥�
Through the Sloan Foundation supported grant, the team will partner with Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University and Hampton University to pool and analyze a large set of external review letters and promotion outcomes.
鈥淲e are confident the data generated through this project will result in changes to how these letters are solicited at universities across the country, and contribute to the discourse around bias and fairness particularly for faculty of color and women,鈥� said Christiane Spitzmueller, UH professor of psychology.
鈥淭hrough this generous grant, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is making a significant investment in helping all universities understand a major factor that influences faculty promotion and diversity,鈥� said Eloise Brice, vice president for university advancement.