This workshop is intended for Faculty at assistant or associate professor level who are getting ready to submit their promotion application to the Departmental Teaching Personnel Committee (DTPC) for consideration.

Course description

All attendees must have an updated cv in any format.  In this highly interactive workshop we will explore the various areas of academic focus, examples of scholarship, presentation of documents.

Learning objectives

At the end of the  workshop the participant will be able to 

• Describe the promotion process 
• Identify what is required for scholarship 
• Develop a strategy to prepare their dossier

Upcoming Workshops:

1. Webinar - Is promotion possible for me?

Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Time: 9:00 - 10:30

Target Audience: Faculty at assistant professor level who are unsure if they should be considering promotion

Facilitators: Dr. Sharon Whiting

Learning objectives:

At the end of the workshop the participant will be able to:

• Describe the benefits of seeking promotion 
• Differentiate between academic activities and scholarship 
• Discuss opportunities to move academic participation to scholarship

Register here.

2. Webinar - Moving forward with promotion

Date: Wednesday November 16, 2022
Time: 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Target Audience: Faculty at assistant or associate professor level who are getting ready to submit to DTPCs for consideration

Facilitators: Dr. Sharon Whiting 

Course description: all attendees must bring an updated cv in any format. In this highly interactive workshop we will explore the various areas of academic focus, examples of scholarship, presentation of documents.

Learning objectives:

At the end of the workshop the participant will be able to 

• Describe the promotion process 
• Identify what is required for scholarship 
• Develop a strategy to prepare their dossier

Register here.

Visit the Office of Faculty Development for more information.

Faculty of Medicine CV Template for Clinicians (pdf, 112.6 KB)

FIRST NAME LAST NAME

HOSPITAL INSTITUTION * ADDRESS * PHONE NUMBER * EMAIL ADDRESS

QUALIFICATIONS AND DEGREES:

HONOURS AND AWARDS:

EMPLOYMENT

UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS:

HOSPITAL APPOINTMENTS:

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

INTERNATIONAL:

NATIONAL:

PROVINCIAL:

LOCAL:

RESEARCH:

LIFETIME FUNDING:

• Total amount of funding received ................................................................................................................ $

• As Principal Investigator .............................................................................................................................. $

EXTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING:

INTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING:

CONTRIBUTIONS

Life-time summary count according to the following categories:

Refereed Jour Articles ..........................................................................................................................................

Conference publications ......................................................................................................................................

Refereed Chapters in books ................................................................................................................................

Other Contributions .............................................................................................................................................

PUBLICATIONS:

• Refereed Chapters in Books

• Refereed Journal Articles

• Conference Publications

INVITED AND PEER-REVIEWED PRESENTATIONS

• International

• National

• Provincial

• Local

SUPERVISIONS:

Summary:

Completed

Supervision detail:

Courses:

Graduate Courses

SCHOLARLY and PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES (Could include)

• Event Administration

• Mentoring Activities

• Expert Witness Activities

• Graduate Examination Activities

• Research Funding Application Assessment Activities

• Organizational Review Activities

• Event Participation Community and Volunteer Activities

• International Collaboration Activities

MEMBERSHIPS:

• International

• National

• Provincial

• Local

Clinical Dossier

Clinical Dossier Template (pdf, 151.35 KB)

What to include in your clinical dossier:

Clinical Dossier Summary

Include a few sentences highlighting the contents of each subheading used in your clinical dossier. This is the equivalent of an abstract of your dossier. It should provide a quick overview of the particularly important aspects of your dossier and provide the reader with a general view of your contributions to clinical care

Philosophy of Clinical Care

This section will be particularly important if your practice format is not typical of most physicians in your area of practice. Questions to ask yourself when reflecting on your philosophy of care:

• What is your approach to clinical care?

• How did you prepare for this role?

• Was there a person or event that influenced your approach?

• How do you influence clinical care in your area of practice?

• Are there factors that enhance your ability to provide excellent clinical care?

• How do you overcome the challenges to providing excellent clinical care?

Clinical Responsibilities

Use tables, when possible, to summarize clinical responsibilities  - include such items as, location (inpatient, outpatient, community based) of clinical service, population served, caseload, numbers of consultations, numbers of follow-ups, procedures etc. In essence, outline the scope of the clinical service provided by you over the time span included in the application and include or delete any items relevant to your practice. Some clinical responsibilities are not easily captured in table format and will require text.

 Example

Include additional activities expected of you to ensure provision of this service.

Describe any special aspects of your clinical care: i.e. If you see a specific patient population that requires special resources or interventions this would be explained here. You may also need to briefly describe what is involved in providing clinical care in your area. For example, if a consult requires eight hours of assessment and then a family meeting to discuss results, this should be mentioned, as this is not typical of most practices.

Clinical Administration and Leadership

Provide a description of any leadership roles you have assumed related to clinical care; e.g. team leader, clinical director, and committee chair.
Describe any role you have played in planning clinical services for your practice area and /or your involvement in developing policy related to the provision of clinical care. Any evaluation of your leadership roles should be discussed here.

Scholarship in Clinical Care

(Note that this is the most important part of your dossier that would be of interest to the reviewers of your application)

Innovation and Initiative:

Provide a description of any innovative programs you have developed, implemented or evaluated involving clinical care. 
Present this information in terms of the clinical problem to be solved with the intervention, the program and its objectives. Briefly outline impact and results of the program implementation.
Research and Dissemination:
Highlight significant contributions, and explain how they relate to your role as a clinician as many of the following items will be in your CV and/or your teaching dossier – refer to these documents as appropriate. Highlight here, contributions that distinguish you from your colleagues.

Examples:

• publications in either peer reviewed or non-refereed journals or book chapters on clinical care subjects

• teaching on clinical subjects, especially invited lectures

• developing new teaching materials or methods on topics related to clinical subjects

• presenting at scholarly meetings or colloquia on clinical topics

• conceiving, developing and carrying out research involving aspects of clinical care

• clinical program evaluation

• membership on major clinical societies, editorial boards etc.

Adapt this section to fit your circumstances. It is very important to present your work in clinical care as scholarly in nature, if you have chosen clinical care as your area of expertise. For more examples on what could be considered scholarship in clinical care, see the promotions manual.

Professional Development

Describe any advanced training or skill development done to enhance provision of clinical care.

Evidence of Excellence

Highlight any awards or award nominations for your clinical work – Provide a three to four line description of the award and its significance.

Brief summaries of evaluations from consumers, team members, colleagues, supervisors, department or division chair showing excellence should be included. (Copies of letters or other forms of appreciation are not normally required)

Appendix I - Clinical Evaluations

If you have a limited number of evaluations, present them all in this section. If you have large numbers, a representative sample would suffice. It is the summary that indicates a consistent and sustained level of clinical expertise that is important.

Teaching Dossier

Teaching Dossier Template (pdf, 185.69 KB)

What to include in your teaching dossier

Teaching Dossier Summary

A summary of your dossier may be helpful if it is extensive. It should provide a quick overview of the particularly important aspects of your dossier and provide the reader with a general view of your contributions to education. This is the equivalent of an abstract of your dossier. A brief dossier may not require a summary. If your two page summary for your promotion application focuses on educational activities you may choose to refer to it as opposed to completing a second summary.

Philosophy of Education

A brief description of your approach to teaching and how you have prepared for your role as a teacher is helpful, especially for clinician teachers and clinician educators.
To be considered in preparing this section:

• Primary areas of interest in medical education

• How you acquired skills as a teacher/educator

• Experiences that have influenced your approach to teaching

• How you approach teaching and education

• Why you teach

Teaching Responsibilities / Student and Faculty Contact

(This section must be completed by all faculty members applying for promotion)

Provide an outline of your teaching activities across the continuum of education. List your teaching activities by level of learner (Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Master’s students, CME) and level of the audience (Local, Provincial, National, and International). Inclusion of the number of learners and the contact time involved will assist others in evaluating your contributions. Summarize where possible rather than list multiple examples of the same activity. For example, you may indicate that you supervise 8 students per year on a clinical service as opposed to listing all eight.

Undergraduate Teaching

Include clinical supervision, courses taught, lectures provided, PBL tutoring, small group sessions (PSD; communication skills; PAL; EBM; etc.)

Postgraduate Teaching

Graduate Education

Continuing Medical Education

Refers to presentations offered to non-academic groups – often patient support or interest groups

Educational Administration and Leadership

Provide a brief description of any leadership roles you have assumed related to medical education. Responsibilities and time commitments should be described for each role at a divisional, departmental, university and external level. The level of activity should be clearly identified, particularly those at a provincial, national and international level. Provide any evidence of evaluation of your leadership skills at the departmental or higher level.
Examples of activities you might include in this section of your dossier include:

Undergraduate Education

•  Block chair

•  Clerkship coordinator

  •  Example: Division of Something Undergraduate Coordinator (‘01 - 2005) Coordinator for all elective clinical rotations, link block rotations, and ambulatory block rotations in something. This involves working with approximately 35 students and twelve clinical supervisors per year. The link block and ambulatory block rotations were introduced in the Division of something since assuming this role.

•  PSD coordinator

•  Exam coordinator

•  Committees (i.e. Admissions committee; Stage II block committee; evaluation  committee)

•  MCC Site coordinator

•  Education task force or working group

•  Consultant to other programs/sites Postgraduate Education

•  Program director

•  Site coordinator

•  Academic half-day coordinator

•  Exam coordinator

•  Committees

•  Consultant to other programs/sites

• Education Task force or working group

  • Example: Implementation of CanMEDS 2000 Roles in Canadian Something Post-Graduate training programs (’99 - ’01)
    In 1999 I took a lead role in revising the training objectives for the Something Specialty Committee of the RCPSC, to include the CanMEDS 2000 roles. My prior involvement with Educating Future Physicians for Ontario (EFPO) and the Societal Needs Working Group for the CanMEDS 2000 Project facilitated this task. The revised objectives were implemented in 2001 and are now used by all Canadian Something specialty-training programs.

Continuing Medical Education

• Program coordinator

• Director

• Education Task force or working group – Local, provincial and national • Coordination of CME credits

• Rounds coordinator

• Committees (i.e. Departmental CPD Committee; Course planning committee; National committees)

  •  Example: The 10th Ottawa Conference on Medical Education - Executive Committee (‘01-‘02)

    • International meeting in Medical Education with a registration of 850 medical educators. Contributed to the initial program planning for the meeting

    • Member of the Faculty development Sub-Group - Responsible for planning and organizing the faculty development stream of the meeting.

    • Chair of the Program Committee - Coordinated the review of 550 abstracts, selected abstracts for presentation and planned oral and poster sessions.

Scholarship in Education

(This section is of particular importance for those applying for promotion with the area of expertise chosen as teaching/education)

Teaching Innovations and Curriculum development: Describe the innovation and your role in development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination. Can include innovative curriculum development, teaching strategies, learning aids, and evaluation methods. You may wish to organize by level of learner or topic. (Be prepared to submit examples of materials when applying for promotion).

Undergraduate

Example: Some-Speciality Elective Rotation for Clinical Clerks

The principles of systematic educational planning were used to develop and implement a rotation for clinical clerks that would provide an introduction to the principles of Some-Speciality. The objectives for the rotation were based on needs identified by students, attending physicians, and patients. The rotation was implemented with-in the Division of Some-Speciality in 2000. Approximately 45 students have now completed the rotation. This curriculum was presented at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Annual Meeting in 2004. A copy of the abstract and the handbook which is provided to students at the start of the rotation are available on request.

Post-graduate

Example: Using the Principles of Continuous Quality Improvement to Develop a Quality Assurance Curriculum for Residents.

This curriculum was developed using an iterative approach over a period of four years. The program is completed during three 2-hr sessions each year. The success of the final curriculum depends on the active involvement of residents in selecting and completing a quality assurance project, within a limited period of time. The curriculum was presented the Some Speciality Annual Meeting in June 2003. A manuscript, describing the program, has also been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for possible publication. An abstract of the Some Speciality presentation is available on request.

Research and Publications in Education

Education research grants, education publications, education research presentations may be identified in this section as you would for your CV. Education peer review activities – grant/paper reviewing and editing contributions should also be included here.

If preferred, you may briefly summarize your education research contributions in this section and refer back to your CV.

For example: the majority of my research grants, publications, and peer-reviewed presentations are related to medical education and has been outlined in my CV. I provided expertise related to quantitative research methodologies and program evaluation for the grants and publications in which I have been a co-investigator/author.

Professional Development

Identify any advanced training or skill development program completed to enhance your skills as a teacher/educator.

Evidence of Excellence

Provide a summary of the results of evaluations provided by different levels of learners. A sample of representative evaluations should be attached as an appendix to the dossier.

Note: It is not necessary to include every evaluation you have ever received; a sampling of evaluations will be preferred by reviewers.

Any teaching awards and nominations should be identified in this section.

A brief description of the basis on which you were nominated to receive the award will be helpful to reviewers.

These guidelines were developed by the Faculty of Medicine Relationship Committee to assess and address issues rooted in the relationship between the Faculty of Medicine and its clinical professors.

Significant gains have been made since the establishment of the Committee in 2010. Notably, the Committee has developed and implemented a new academic appointments process for clinical members in the Faculty of Medicine and established a committee to oversee it. For more information concerning the academic appointments process in the Faculty of Medicine, please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs to obtain a copy of the guidelines document.

The Committee then turned its attention to refining the Faculty’s promotions process. Significant work was done in the past to review and update this process. The Committee built on this, examining what has worked and what has not worked throughout the past decade, to clarify the process and metrics used in promotion evaluation and to ensure a more harmonized approach to performance review by the University of Ottawa and affiliated Hospitals. To support the process, a thorough review of the promotions process at other universities across Canada, and at some in the United States, was also completed.

As a result of this background work, the Committee instituted a number of changes to the promotions process in order to ensure the approach was clear and consistent across the Faculty of Medicine. Those familiar with the former process will note that the concept of “career paths” is no longer used; instead, a new set of principles describing how faculty members will be promoted within the Faculty of Medicine has been established, which is later described in this document. Additionally, the Committee revised the role and mandate of the Departmental Teaching Personnel Committee (hereinafter referred to as “DTPC”) to support the promotions process, which is further described in Section 5.

The Relationship Committee presents a new process for the promotion of faculty members to the levels of Associate Professor and Full Professor, based on promotions criteria that were revised in 2014, 2020, and again in 2022. These criteria provide a new framework for promotion while maintaining high standards of excellence at the Faculty of Medicine. It is advisable that all faculty members, upon appointment to the University of Ottawa, familiarize themselves with the content of this document in order to be better prepared for applying for promotion during their career.

• Clarity regarding length of time at each level: Two paragraphs have been added to Section 1: Overview, that explicitly state the number of years of university service that is required before applying for promotion at the level of Associate Professor and Full Professor.

• The importance of Leadership is now emphasized as a metric for promotion: Faculty members must provide evidence of leadership and recognition that extends beyond the University of Ottawa.

• The metrics of scholarship have been broadened and clarified: To ensure a clearer understanding of the process and metrics used for promotion, the new guidelines more explicitly recognize all four types of scholarship outlined by Boyer: Scholarship of Discovery, Scholarship of Integration, Scholarship of Application, and Scholarship of Teaching. Although the former guidelines clearly recognized the Scholarship of Discovery and the Scholarship of Integration in the evaluation process, it was not clear how Scholarship of Application or Scholarship of Teaching could be achieved. These new guidelines will help faculty better understand how their applied contributions, such as improvements to patient care and safety, the development of educational materials, assessment tools, and guidelines for patient care, can contribute to their application.

• A Scholarship in Teaching section has been added to the Teaching Dossier: As mentioned above, these new guidelines more explicitly recognize all four types of scholarship in the promotion process. As contributions in teaching are not always published or disseminated in ways that are easily written out on a CV, this section will give faculty the opportunity to clearly outline their teaching activities, and their impact, in order to show proof of scholarship.

• A Dossier in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety has been added to the Promotion Content Checklist: Similar to scholarship of teaching, quality improvement and patient safety activities are not always published or disseminated in traditional ways. The creation of this new dossier will give faculty a place to clearly outline these activities and to provide proof of scholarship.

• Service to University has been incorporated into the merit of leadership and recognition: In order to highlight the importance of service to the university, this section has been moved from the Supporting Activities and Contributions section to the merit of Leadership and Recognition.

• Current Research on Social Media Scholarship (pdf, 127.65 KB)

Although the framework and criteria for promotion have changed, our fundamental principles remain the same:

It is intended that faculty members will use this guide to assist them in understanding promotion requirements, preparing for promotion, and assembling a successful Promotion Application Package.

The guide is organized in the following sections:

• Section 1: Overview - The first section of this document provides an outline of steps to follow when applying for promotion and preparing a Promotion Application Package, as well as an overview of application requirements. Faculty members can refer to the appendix sections to obtain the required checklists.

• Section 2: Areas of Focus - The second section of this document introduces the three (3) areas of focus and offers guidelines on how to select an area of focus. This section also provides detailed information, including examples and metrics, on how academic performance can be demonstrated in each of the areas of focus, as required for promotion to the levels of Associate Professor and Full Professor.

• Section 3: The Teaching Dossier – The third section provides information concerning the preparation of a teaching dossier. It includes links to templates intended to assist faculty members in the preparation of this application requirement.

• Section 4: Supporting Activities and Contributions – The fourth section describes how supporting activities and contributions can supplement achievements in the faculty member’s area of focus.

• Section 5: Evaluation of Promotion Applications at the University – The fifth section provides information detailing the role of the DTPC and of the CTPC in evaluating Promotion Application Packages at the University or Ottawa, and outlines procedures and timelines associated with the promotions process.

• Appendices: Checklists and Templates – Faculty members seeking promotion at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, are encouraged to use the checklists and templates found at the end of this document to ensure all process steps are completed and all application requirements are met.

The Application Process

In order to apply for promotion at the level of associate professor, the member must be at the assistant professor level and have accumulated, at the end of the calendar year in which the promotion takes effect, at least four (4) years of university experience at the level of assistant professor, or the equivalent thereof, of which the last two (2) academic years must be at the University of Ottawa.  No prejudice or penalty is attached to the decision of a Member to accumulate more than four (4) years of university-level experience before applying for promotion to Associate Professor.

In order to apply for promotion at the level of full professor the member must be at the associate professor level and have accumulated, at the end of the calendar year in which the promotion takes effect, nine (9) years of university-level experience, or the equivalent thereof. Consequently, the nine-year (9) university-level experience criterion is regarded as a minimum; it may or may not be the optimal moment for a Member to apply. No prejudice or penalty is attached to the decision of a Member to accumulate more than nine (9) years of university-level experience before applying for promotion to Full Professor.

The responsibility for applying for promotion at the Faculty of Medicine remains with the individual. The faculty member considering applying for promotion should first inform and discuss the matter with their Department Chair. The Department Chair may prompt or suggest postponement of an application for promotion at an appropriate time, such as an annual review.

The Dean’s Office requires written approval from the DTPC concerning the candidate’s application for promotion before the application will be reviewed at the Faculty level by the Clinical Teaching Personnel Committee (CTPC).

Obtaining Approval from the DTPC

• Step 1: Submission of Letter of Intent and CV

To initiate the promotions process, the faculty member must submit a letter of intent, accompanied by an up-to-date Curriculum Vitae (See Appendix E), to the DTPC and the Department Chair no later than the January 31 preceding the University established application deadline. The DTPC will review the submission and make an initial recommendation. Faculty members recommended by the DTPC to move forward will be notified no later than March 31 that they should prepare for full submission. For those faculty members whom the Committee has recommended deferring their application, the DTPC will recommend to the Department Chair appropriate support in preparation of a future application. The member may withdraw their application at any time.

• Step 2: Preparation and submission of Promotion Application Package to the DTPC

Faculty members will then prepare their full Promotion Application Package, which must be submitted to the DTPC no later than July 01 for review and final recommendation. Steps for assembling a Promotion Application Package and an overview of the application content requirements are detailed in the diagram: “Preparing a Promotion Application Package”; additional guidance on how to meet each requirement can be found in subsequent sections of this document. Templates and checklists to assist faculty members in the preparation of their Promotion Application Package can be found in the Appendices.

Obtaining Approval from the CTPC

• Step 3: Submission of final Promotion Application Package to the Office of Faculty Affairs

Faculty members who have been recommended for promotion by the DTPC must submit their full Promotion Application Package electronically to the Office of Faculty Affairs no later than October 01. The final package must include a list of potential external reviewers, as well as a letter from the Department Chair confirming that a review was conducted by the DTPC and providing departmental support for the application. 

Recommendations regarding promotion will be made at the faculty level by the CTPC; no candidate will be considered for promotion by the CTPC without a favorable recommendation of the DTPC. Final decision regarding promotion rests with the Joint Committee of the Senate and the Board of Governors.

Procedures and timelines associated with the evaluation of the Promotion Application Package at the University can be found on page 34.

Guidelines for Selecting an Area of Focus

Faculty members are required to select one (1) area of focus representing their major area of contribution, achievement, and impact. The three areas of focus are:

• Clinical Expertise. This area of focus is appropriate for individuals whose scholarship and achievements focus on a specific area of clinical expertise. These individuals are also heavily involved in teaching, and often rely heavily on their scholarship in teaching.
• Teaching and Education. This area of focus is appropriate for individuals who spend the majority of their academic time and effort on teaching and education, and who view this as their primary academic focus. Faculty members seeking promotion will be evaluated on both the quality and quantity of the scholarly component of their teaching and education activities.
• Research. This area of focus is appropriate for individuals who spend a high proportion of their academic time and effort performing research.

Faculty members will be required to demonstrate how they meet promotion criteria related to excellence, scholarship, and recognition for their area of focus in their Promotion Application Package. This is described in more detail in subsequent pages.

A few important points to consider:

• Determination of the area of focus is made by the faculty member in consultation with the Department Chair.
• The area of focus must be aligned with the candidate’s Memorandum of Agreement.
• The area of focus represents the member’s major area of achievement and impact and is the basis of their reputation and recognition. It should represent recent activities to which the member has devoted the majority of their academic time and effort. The selection may also be influenced by how the faculty member views their career path, and by the quality and quantity of their contributions.
• The purpose of these promotion guidelines is to encourage all faculty members to seek an area of focus and to become a recognized expert in that area. Although most members will opt to position the accomplishments in their Promotion Application Package under one area of focus that best represents their area of work, in rare cases - the sum total of contribution in all three (3) areas of focus may be recognized as sufficient to qualify for promotion.
• Additional activities that fall outside of the member’s primary area of focus can contribute to promotion but, in and of themselves, will be seen as supporting activities only.
• Although affirmation from the Department Chair of the member’s clinical service contribution is essential, long-term service alone is not sufficient to qualify for promotion.

Area of Focus: Clinical Expertise

Description

This area of focus is appropriate for faculty members whose academic activities and achievements focus on a specific area of clinical expertise. To be successful for promotion, members are expected to have established a reputation as a leader in their clinical field, to be deeply engaged in scholarly work (which must include dissemination and may include publication in the area of clinical expertise), and to show himself/herself to be an effective teacher in the clinical field; with some individuals using teaching activities to demonstrate scholarship.

Excellence in the domain of clinical care may be demonstrated by:

• Sustained and documentable clinical service and satisfactory peer review of clinical care, reviews by the recipients of clinical service, including referring physicians, patients, and residents.
• Documentable community service and advocacy. This includes service to the discipline (e.g. serving as journal and grant reviewer on an ad hoc basis, committee or editorial membership, office in professional society), service to University/Hospital, and service to the public (e.g. communication of expertise to lay audiences, voluntary professional service).

Faculty members focusing on a specific area of clinical expertise must demonstrate they meet promotion criteria and requirements through their CV, a quality improvement and patient safety dossier (if applicable), a teaching dossier, and a clinical dossier. The templates for the dossiers are available in the appendices of this document. Members are encouraged to include a summary at the front-end of their dossiers listing highlights of their experience and qualifications, and to also include such highlights in the Executive Summary portion of their Promotion Application Package.

Area of Focus: Teaching and Education

Description

This area of focus is appropriate for faculty members who spend the majority of their academic time and effort on teaching and education, and who view this as their primary academic focus. Teaching and education can encompass formal teaching (e.g., lecturing, seminars and tutorials, individual and group discussions, laboratory teaching, and clinical teaching) and informal teaching (e.g., role modelling, mentoring and graduate/postgraduate supervision, including residents/fellows and postdoctoral fellows). It also encompasses such areas as curriculum and course development, development of educational materials, application of information technologies for local and distance education, educational leadership and administration, faculty development, scholarship in education, research in education, and quality assurance and evaluation of educational processes and outcomes.

Faculty members seeking promotion on the basis of excellence in teaching and education must demonstrate significant and high-quality contributions to teaching and/or other education related activities. To be successful for promotion, members are expected to have established a reputation as a teacher or educator and to be deeply engaged in scholarly work (which must include dissemination, and may include publication).

Faculty members focusing on teaching and education must demonstrate they meet promotion criteria and requirements through their CV, a quality improvement and patient safety dossier (if applicable), and a teaching dossier. The templates for the dossiers are available in the appendices of this document. Members are encouraged to include a summary at the front-end of their dossiers listing highlights of their experience and qualifications, and to also include such highlights in the Executive Summary portion of their Promotion Application Package.

Area of Focus: Research

Description

This area of focus is appropriate for faculty members who spend a high proportion of their academic time and effort performing research, including basic science, translational, and educational research. Faculty members selecting this area of focus usually have minimal clinical responsibilities.

Promotion to the levels of Associate Professor or Full Professor based on research requires that the faculty member has a record of sustained and current productivity in research and research-related activities, including lab-based and population/patient-based research. The researcher’s work should present creative insights, ideas, or concepts, and must have yielded a significant quantity of information leading to new understanding. It is expected that research advances will be communicated through the publication of papers, reviews, books, and other scholarly works. An individual seeking promotion on the basis of achievement in research must also have a strong and continuing record of external funding commensurate with the type and area of research.

For faculty members focusing on research, it is expected that teaching contributions will include training and mentoring of graduate or postgraduate learners, including residents/fellows and postdoctoral fellows, specializing in the area of research.

Faculty members focusing on research must demonstrate they meet promotion criteria and requirements through their CV. Members are encouraged to include a summary at the front-end of their CV listing highlights of their experience and qualifications, and to also include such highlights in the Executive Summary portion of their Promotion Application Package.

Examples of Metrics

The following section provides examples of metrics under each area of focus. The metrics provided are not intended to be comprehensive, but only to serve as examples of common achievements. They are divided into the categories of activities, scholarship, and leadership and recognition; this is to assist in identifying the various achievements, both for the faculty member in the preparation of their Promotion Application Package and for the Committee in the evaluation of members. Achievements in each area may be closely related and considered together will provide a complete picture of the member’s portfolio.

Metrics - Category Overview

1. Clinical Expertise Metrics

2. Teaching and Education Metrics

3. Research Metrics

Contributing to the University’s Academic Mission

Given the importance of the educational mission of the Faculty of Medicine, promotion of faculty members to the level of Associate Professor and Full Professor requires that the member has

contributed in a meaningful way to the achievement of the Faculty’s and the University’s educational mission. All faculty members are expected to engage in teaching activities regardless of academic focus.

Teaching effectiveness is demonstrated by the degree to which the faculty member is able to stimulate and challenge the intellectual ability of learners, to communicate academic material effectively, and to maintain a mastery of his or her subject areas. It also involves maintaining accessibility to learners and the ability to influence their intellectual and scholarly development.

Faculty members are evaluated for their contributions to teaching and educational activities at the University of Ottawa and affiliated institutions through a teaching dossier. While the dossier is a required component in the promotions process, this alone is not sufficient for promotion.

Guidelines on the Preparation of a Teaching Dossier

The preparation of the teaching dossier requires close attention. The dossier should include the following components:

Many faculty members will make significant contributions outside of their area of focus. These activities and contributions should be described in the Promotion Application Package to supplement accomplishments in the member’s area of focus so that the sum total of their achievements can be considered in the evaluation for promotion. While supporting activities and contributions may decrease the expected quantity of contribution in the area of focus, they do not diminish the requirement for exceptional quality of academic achievement in the area of focus.

In rare cases, the achievements of a faculty member in a significant supporting activity will be so exceptional that it is sufficient to serve as the major basis of the promotion. In such extraordinary cases, the requirements for both recognition and scholarship broadly defined are applied as for areas of focus. Such exceptions must be discussed in advance with the Office of Professional Affairs.

Service to the University

As mentioned above, service to the University, meaning primarily administrative or committee work within the University of Ottawa and its affiliated Hospitals, forms an important and often time-consuming aspect of many faculty members’ academic careers. Such service is required. Service is regarded as a valuable Faculty activity, and the impact of such service is considered in the granting of promotion in support of achievements in the member’s primary focus area.

Faculty members should document administrative service and accomplishments, and especially scholarship in administration, outside of the member’s primary area of focus in supporting activities and contributions. Due to the variable activities included under service, there may be diverse metrics used to indicate the impact of service. Such evidence may include:

• Establishment of new programs within the Faculty or University.
• Development of new or revised departmental, Faculty or University policies and procedures.
• Significant contributions to the development of policies or procedures within a discipline, profession or relevant organization.
• Innovative initiatives in a leadership position in university or faculty of medicine (e.g., program director, division head, chair of a department).
• Invitations to serve a leadership function in the Faculty or University.
• Representation and active involvement on Boards and other organizational committees.
• Significant contributions while serving in a leadership role in discipline or professional organizations.
• Invited presentations related to administration.
• Editing or contributing to administration of a journal.
• Administrative grants/articles.

Recommendations regarding promotions are made at the Faculty level by the CTPC. All faculty members must first obtain a favorable recommendation from the DTPC before being considered for promotion by the CTPC.

An overview of the procedures and timelines associated with the promotions process at the Faculty of Medicine are available on page 34.

Role of the DTPC

The DTPC serves to implement the promotions process fairly and consistently across departments and to maximize the potential for faculty members to move forward for promotion. The mandate of the DTPC is to:

• Review, evaluate, and recommend faculty members for promotion through the academic ranks.
• Serve as an internal peer review body to assist with the preparation of quality applications for promotion prior to submission.
• Facilitate and mentor faculty members through the promotions process.
• Review, evaluate, and recommend faculty members for any other matter relating to academic duties as referred to it by the Clinical Department Chair.

Through providing recommendations to the Department Chair, the DTPC will make recommendations for consideration of faculty promotions to the CTPC. Faculty members will not be considered for promotion by the CTPC without a favorable recommendation of the DTPC. For more information of the roles and responsibilities of the DTPC, please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs to obtain a copy of the associated terms of reference document.

Role of the CTPC

The responsibility of the CTPC is to evaluate and make recommendations on matters concerning promotion, academic leave, cross-appointment, , request for Professor Emeritus status, or other matters when these matters are referred to it by the Dean.

The CTPC shall make recommendations and give advice in accordance with the aim of maintaining, within the Faculty appropriate standards for scholarship in clinical, education, research and administration activities.

Recommendations of the CTPC concerning requests for promotion are sent to the Joint Committee of the Senate and the Board of Governors for final approval.

Procedures and Timelines

Faculty members seeking promotion at the Faculty of Medicine are encouraged to use the following checklist in the preparation of their Promotion Application Package to ensure all process steps are completed in time. For more information related to the procedures and timelines associated with the evaluation of Promotion Application Packages at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, refer to page 34.

Faculty members seeking promotion at the Faculty of Medicine are encouraged to use the following checklist in the preparation of their Promotion Application Package to ensure all application requirements are met.

NOTE: Faculty members are not permitted to contact proposed evaluators during the promotion period and must refrain from engaging in communication related to their promotion file.

 *Lists of external reviewers must include personal information, including: rank, full address, phone, and email contact. Evaluators from the University of Ottawa and affiliated institutions will not be considered. Evaluators having recent collaboration (i.e. within the last 10 years) with the faculty member will not be considered. Arm’s length reviewer implies that the external reviewers have no connections or relationship with the applicant being reviewed in order to provide an objective assessment.

The external reviewer – known scholars in the field, and who are able to provide an objective evaluation of the applicant’s work. It is recognized that in the context of collaborative research in certain fields, it may be difficult to find external reviewers who have no connection with the applicant, but external reviewers should not include individuals who have collaborated closely and frequently with the applicant in the production of scholarly work and publications.

Reviewers should not:

• be a relative or close friend, or have a personal relationship with the applicant
• be closely professional affiliated with the applicant
• been a supervisor or trainee of the applicant
• collaborated, published, shared funding with the applicant, or have plans to do so in the near future
• feel for any reason unable to provide an impartial review of the applicant

August 12, 2020

Additional Information for the DTPC and CTPC-Current literature review on social media scholarship

Social media (SM) is comprised of digital and electronic platforms hosted on the internet that allow for the creation, distribution, curation, and collaboration of content1. Social media is a unique and very powerful tool. SM is known as an alternative metric; currently considered an important complementary measure of scholarly activity. However, research suggests that the exponential rise in this type of work may lead to it becoming more important than traditional journal-based metrics.

Medical centers and academic institutes have embraced the use of SM for many things such as branding and advertising. However, using SM as proof of scholarship is the early stage of adoption. Therefore, although SM is being used, faculties and institutions are lagging behind with incorporation into promotion applications.

The consensus seems to be that as more faculty take part in these activities it becomes more important for faculties to guide and reward these activities.

Benefits of SM:

• Very fast dissemination
• Allows distribution to a large number of people
• Allows for easy distribution to individuals and communities outside of academia (such as the general population)
• Allows for easy engagement and critiques of work
• Allows for new spaces for academic deliberation (online learning networks, digital communities of practice)

Concerns of adopting SM (with rebuttal).

Hard for institutes to determine quality standard of this work.

• To address this, an institute needs to come up with a clear quality standards in order to rate the work
• Articles have therefore suggested the importance of a “social media scholarship portfolio”
• Perhaps through the development of a SM dossier—taking into account aspects current research has deemed important.

Hard to determine metrics and knowledge distribution

• Recent advancements have allowed for easily reportable, real-time metrics (for example: page views, impressions, shares, and likes)
• Furthermore, this information is readily available, so the evaluators can easily obtain this information themselves.

Concern of content bias; where an academic product relevant to current events—or about SM—is more likely to be shared on SM.

• This does need to be considered. However, this is also true in academic journals, where “hot topics” are more likely to be cited.

These types of work are susceptible to manipulation (e.g., the individual can share their own work, visit their own sites)

This is important and does need to be considered. However, this can also hold true for academic journals, where authors can self-reference.

Examples:

• Creator or major contributor of a SM-based journal club (with many journals now operating companion blogs)
• Editor-in-chief, chief content officer, or manager of a social media network
• Creator, director, or Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical blog, podcast, or vodcast.
• Invitations to lay meetings or talks/interviews with media and lay publications
• Creation of media (e.g., websites, instructional videos)

Level of Impact Examples1

Low impact:

• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical blog with more than 2000 page views per month over a calendar year
• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical podcast/vodcast with more than 2000 downloads/ views per month over a calendar year
• Top 5% influencers in health care–related digital communities using primary or third- party analytics
• Author of a blog post, article, or media piece with more than 3000 views with no DOI
• Author of a blog post, article, or media piece with more than 1000 views with DOI

Medium impact:

• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical blog with more than 5000 page views per month over a calendar year
• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical podcast/vodcast with more than 5000 downloads/ views per month over a calendar year
• Editor-in-chief, chief content officer, or manager of a social media network with more than 10 000 active users
• Author of a blog post, article, or media piece with more than 15 000 views with no DOI
• Author of a blog post, article, or media piece with more than 7500 views with DOI

High impact:

• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical blog with more than 20 000 page views per month over a calendar year
• Editor-in-chief (or major editorial duties) of an academic or clinical podcast/vodcast with more than 20 000 downloads/ views per month over a calendar year
• Editor-in-chief, chief content officer, or manager of a social media network with more than 50 000 active users

References

1. Journal of Graduate Medical Education

2. Journal of the American College of Radiology

3. Social Media and Health Professions Education