Preprint: “How Faculty Define Quality, Prestige, and Impact in Research”

The preprint article linked below was recently shared on birXiv.

Title

How Faculty Define Quality, Prestige, and Impact in Research

Authors

Esteban Morales
University of British Columbia

Erin McKiernan
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Meredith T. Niles
University of Vermont

Lesley Schimanski
Simon Fraser University

Juan Pablo Alperin
Simon Fraser University

Source

via bioRxiv
DOI: 10.1101/2021.04.14.439880

Abstract

Despite the calls for change, there is significant consensus that when it comes to evaluating publications, review, promotion, and tenure processes should aim to reward research that is of high “quality,” has an “impact,” and is published in “prestigious” journals. Nevertheless, such terms are highly subjective and present challenges to ascertain precisely what such research looks like. Accordingly, this article responds to the question: how do faculty from universities in the United States and Canada define the terms quality, prestige, and impact? We address this question by surveying 338 faculty members from 55 different institutions. This study’s findings highlight that, despite their highly varied definitions, faculty often describe these terms in overlapping ways. Additionally, results shown that marked variance in definitions across faculty does not correspond to demographic characteristics. This study’s results highlight the need to more clearly implement evaluation regimes that do not rely on ill-defined concepts.

Direct to Full Text Article
24 pages; PDF.

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