TY - JOUR TI - How significant are the public dimensions of faculty work in review, promotion and tenure documents? AU - Alperin, Juan P AU - Muñoz Nieves, Carol AU - Schimanski, Lesley A AU - Fischman, Gustavo E AU - Niles, Meredith T AU - McKiernan, Erin C A2 - Pewsey, Emma A2 - Rodgers, Peter A A2 - Janke, Emily A2 - Coates, Heather VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/02/12 SP - e42254 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e42254 DO - 10.7554/eLife.42254 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.42254 AB - Much of the work done by faculty at both public and private universities has significant public dimensions: it is often paid for by public funds; it is often aimed at serving the public good; and it is often subject to public evaluation. To understand how the public dimensions of faculty work are valued, we analyzed review, promotion, and tenure documents from a representative sample of 129 universities in the US and Canada. Terms and concepts related to public and community are mentioned in a large portion of documents, but mostly in ways that relate to service, which is an undervalued aspect of academic careers. Moreover, the documents make significant mention of traditional research outputs and citation-based metrics: however, such outputs and metrics reward faculty work targeted to academics, and often disregard the public dimensions. Institutions that seek to embody their public mission could therefore work towards changing how faculty work is assessed and incentivized. KW - scholarly communications KW - academic careers KW - metrics KW - open access KW - higher education KW - institutional policy JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -