RPT
Review, Promotion, and Tenure
Review, Promotion, and Tenure Project
How can research institutions incentivize openness and accessibility?
One of the key components of workplace advancement at the university level are the review, promotion, and tenure (RPT) packets that are typically submitted every other year by early career faculty. The importance of RPT guidelines and forms makes them a natural place to effect change towards an opening of access to research (something both Canada and the US have been pushing for through federal policies and laws). This project examined the RPT process in the US and Canada in ways that can directly inform actions likely to translate into behavioural change and to a greater opening of research.
To do so, we collected and analyzed more than 850 RPT guidelines from research institutions across Canada and the US and assessed the degree to which they included guidelines specific to open access, open data, and open education. We also explored the use of the Journal Impact Factor in these documents, analyzing how often the controversial was mentioned and how it was defined. Finally, we investigated faculty members' perceptions about the RPT process, including what publishing strategies they believe will be rewarded and how this influences their dissemination choices.
To find out more about the RPT project, visit the ScholCommLab's media page, read about it on our blog, or check out one of the publications below.