WHAT’S NEW AND DIFFERENT OR NEEDS ATTENTION?

The 2008-2009 edition of this APT Procedures Manual include:

• Minor changes in procedure suggested by the 2007-2008 University APT Committee and Appeals Committee. Because some earlier suggestions have yet to become standard practice, they are reiterated here!
• A much neglected part of the APT policy is the requirement to add into the dossier the letters to candidates notifying them of the progress of their case. See Table 10 and the section on the Dean’s and Chair’s letters for a summary of these requirements.
• When new appointments are made, please inform the Office of Faculty Affairs whether the offer of appointment has been accepted or declined.
• Note that ALL APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION DOSSIERS MUST BE SUBMITTED AS A SINGLE PDF FILE, accompanied by one archival hard copy containing the original documents.
• The manual provides guidance on the submission of course evaluations gathered under the new campus wide procedures. All dossiers for the 2008-2009 year should contain data from these uniform course evaluations, starting with the earliest data available (Fall 2007).

REMINDERS OF PERENNIAL PROBLEMS:

• The Unit’s criteria for promotion to the rank under consideration should be included in Section 4 of the dossier (First Level Unit Administrator’s Letter). Units should provide specific expectations that can be used to guide the evaluation of the candidate’s credentials and these expectations should be consistent with University standards. We do not need the Unit’s APT procedures.
• Several problems with external referee letters continue to arise:
1. Letters from collaborators and academic advisors are to be avoided (except under unusual circumstances, e.g., participation in large international and national teams). We now ask that these referees be identified and their choice justified.
2. Evaluation letters should be limited to eight.
3. Include refusals/non-responses in Section 10, the Letter Log.
• Units should employ a standard format for evaluating scholarly output that is confined to just the outlets in which the candidate publishes. This evaluation should provide some “objective” evaluation of these outlets such as “impact” and “immediacy” or acceptance rate. Where appropriate, the section on reputation should also contain citation counts (excluding self-citations).
• Each c.v. should contain the full citation for scholarly pieces, with all authors cited exactly in the order in which they appear in the publication! The sole exception is when the work is a product of a large group. Candidates should designate the identity of the lead or corresponding author for joint authorships using * or placing that name in bold.
• Citation of grants should designate the p.i., dates, and amount the candidate (and his/her lab) was funded in addition to funding source and grant title.
• Personal statements should be limited to 3-4 pages and should be sent to the external referees.
• Care should be taken in scheduling the completion of components of the dossier.
1. The personal statement should be completed, signed, and dated prior to the solicitation of requests for letters from external referees and this statement must be available for IRC and first level reviewers.
2. The c.v. in the dossier should be the one sent to reviewers with memos about additional major accomplishments attached to the c.v. The c.v. is closed when the dossier is officially due to the Faculty Affairs APT website.
3. The Summary Statement of Professional Accomplishments should be composed by the Unit IRC and signed and dated by the candidate BEFORE the eligible faculty receive the promotion material.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES:

There is a two phase submission process. (1) The dossier, consisting of a single bookmarked PDF file, is to be uploaded on a secure Faculty Affairs website www.faculty.umd.edu/apt. These dossiers may be uploaded at any time prior to their due date. (2) On the due date, the Office of Faculty Affairs also requires the submission of two hard copies, one containing the original documentation.

The electronic dossier PDFs can be created through scanning or directly from a word processing program. The byproduct of a word processing program is easier to search and enables easier “cut and pasting.” Whichever method is used to create the PDF document, it MUST have these characteristics:

• A resolution of 300 dpi. A finer resolution uses too much space; less is unreadable,
• Production in black and white to reduce file size,
• Pages in a portrait, not a landscape orientation,
• Vertical flow pf pages,( Avoid side by side presentations of pages)
• Bookmarked sections which will serve as a readily accessible table of contents.
  • Transmittal Form
  • Dean’s Letter
  • College Report
  • Chair’s Letter
  • Deparment APT Criteria
  • Department Reports
  • Summary Statement of Professional Achievements
  • C.V.
  • Reputation of Publication Outlets
  • Personal Statement
  • Letter Log
  • Referee Credentials
  • Sample Letter
  • External Letters
    • Sub-bookmarked for each separate letter with a designation of
      source (candidate-C or Unit-U), e.g., U-Smith
  • Teaching Evaluations
    • Students
    • Peers
    • Advising List

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