Suggested Guidelines for Appointment or Promotion to Senior Rank
Appointment in the Investigator Track is reserved for faculty members in the basic sciences and for clinicians who demonstrate a career commitment to scholarly pursuit and have documentation of their endeavors by way of significant publication, grant support, peer recognition for outstanding research and national and international recognition. As supplementary support for promotion in this track, clinicians may demonstrate peer recognition as an outstanding physician; direction of a service; teaching courses, rounds, preceptor, lab mentor and/or conference leader.
While tangible distinction should be demonstrated in at least one aspect of academic activity in which the individual is engaged, it is generally expected that the individual's contributions to the tasks of this medical school (education, research, clinical service and administration) will have considerable breadth; and in all aspects of academic activity, the individual must meet the standards of this medical school. "Citizenship" i.e., service to the school or its affiliated institutions, will also be considered relevant for promotion to senior rank.
No precise distinction exists in the criteria for appointment or promotion to the rank of Associate Professor or Professor. Having achieved the rank of Associate Professor, it is expected that the same level of high quality scholarly productivity, research accomplishments, teaching activity, and “good citizenship’ will have continued to warrant promotion to Professor. The Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP) often looks for national involvement and recognition for the rank of Associate Professor and international recognition for the rank of Professor.
Recommendation to the Investigator Track is made to the senior ranks of:
- Professor of…
- Associate Professor of…
Each of the following is intended to illustrate a career description for an individual who is eligible for an appointment or promotion to senior rank within the Investigator Track guidelines. The few illustrations given are meant to illustrate a range of career routes to senior rank. They are intended to reflect a balance leaning, respectively, towards research, clinical, teaching and administrative contributions. When properly reviewed by the full curriculum vitae and other supporting materials, each is a model that would be appointed or promoted at senior rank.
- The candidate has made basic research contributions that are widely known and are original and ground breaking. The candidate has published extensively in refereed journals of high caliber, presented his work at national meetings, and been active in professional organizations as officer and committee member. The candidate is not a clinician and does not contribute in that area. However, the candidate is a respected teacher, giving a section of a basic course for medical students in his area and regularly working with a group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in his lab.
- The candidate is renowned as a clinician nationwide and is called upon for special clinical consultations, and patients are referred to him for difficult problems within his area of expertise. The candidate has spoken at national meetings and, though rarely, served on national committees. Publications are few, but he has edited one book and published several case reports in his area. At Einstein, the candidate is a respected clinical teacher. Students come here from all over to take electives in his unit and he is an important role model for them.
- The candidate is a respected teacher, with a long history of major impact upon house staff and they carry his influence and educational methods to other medical schools when they leave; curricula that he has shaped reflect creative and wide-ranging scholarship, and have been adopted elsewhere as well. Potential house staff are advised to come to Einstein from elsewhere so as to train with this person. He has authored a textbook and published a few chapters in books edited by others, as well as having presented at various national meetings. He is well regarded clinically.
- The candidate is a respected clinician and teacher, with numerous medical student and house staff contacts in rounds and courses. His major current work is in running an innovative clinic and ward where pioneering diagnostic and treatment procedures have been undertaken. He is known widely for the creation of this service which has been emulated elsewhere, and he has served as a consultant to these new services. The service has a research arm which has produced both basic and clinical research contributions. While the candidate has not been directly involved in that research on a day-to-day basis, he is widely regarded as having developed the context, both of ideas and of functioning, that makes the research possible, and he is co-author of numerous papers emanating from it.
Investigator Track Checklist