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and Promotion. Publishing. John H. Krystal, M.D. I have my ACNP Travel Award, but will I get tenure?. J. Krystal 12/08. The two central questions the Dean asks promotion committees about you. How successful were you? How successful will you be?. J. Krystal. J. Krystal 12/08.
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and Promotion Publishing John H. Krystal, M.D.
I have my ACNP Travel Award, but will I get tenure? J. Krystal 12/08
The two central questions the Dean asks promotion committees about you • How successful were you? • How successful will you be? J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Traditional markers of past and future success • Establish a laboratory/research program • Obtain research funding • Teach and mentor trainees • Present research findings • Publish research findings J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Significance of your publications for Promotions Committees • Productivity: Enough publications? • Scientific independence: Your work? • Stature: High impact journals? • Impact: Highly cited? • Trajectory: Pattern of productivity J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Enough Publications? • Example: Criteria for promotion to Professor of Psychiatry (Track V) from a University noted for its basketball prowess: Usually a minimum of 40 peer-reviewed publications will be necessary to be considered for this rank… J. Krystal 12/08
How can you insure that you have enough publications? • Diversify your portfolio of research activities and peer-reviewed publications: • Short-term and long-term studies • Collaborations • Reviews and original research • Limit distractions, i.e., book chapters J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Scientific Independence • You must develop a body of research that is identified as your research independent of your mentors and colleagues • Reflected in publications: • First authored papers without your mentor • Last authored publications with your trainees as first author J. Krystal 12/08
Your 10 best papers define your career • Most institutions value high impact publications far more than # of papers (above a minimum threshold) • Most institutions ask you to identify your single most important “contribution” and the top 5-10 papers that define that contribution • Most of your papers will have relatively little impact on your promotion J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
High impact journals? • First tier (broad): Science, Nature (the group), Neuron, PNAS, NEJM, JAMA, Lancet • Second tier (competitive specialty journals):Archives of General Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology • Third tier (best subspecialty journals) J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Competing views of journal impact reduces importance of citation impact within tier Impact Factor Rank Eigenvalue Rank Archives of Gen Psych Am J Psychiatry Mol Psychiatry Biol Psychiatry Am J Psychiatry Archives of GP Biol Psychiatry Mol Psychiatry citations/paper Also considers total citations (# papers) Bergstrom CT J Neurosci 2008 J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
When are within tier impact differences important? • Impact factor may give you bragging rights over your lower impact colleague • Impact factor scores may be a useful way to evaluate the success of a journal • Journal impact factor is subject to manipulation, reducing its utility • All journal editors downplay the importance of impact factor but pay close attention to it nonetheless (like US News and World report rankings of Medical Schools) • Some institutions link promotions and incentives quantitatively to impact factor scores of your papers or journals in which they appear • In some countries institutional support from funding agencies may be linked to citation impact of the publications of their investigators (UK) J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Why does the prestige of a journal make a difference for you? • No longer determines access (pubmed) • Signals your ability to compete at the highest levels • Signals quality to the field (increases citations) • Balance risk of rejection with probability of increased visibility J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
What other journal considerations make a difference? • Rapidity of review • Biological Psychiatry (10%-15% accept rate overall) • ~50% of papers rejected within 5 days of submission • Average about 16 days to first decision (30% accept rate) • Rapidity of epublication and hard copy publication • Biological Psychiatry • About 40 days to epub after final acceptance • Hard copy publication within 6 months • “Marketing” of your paper • Biological Psychiatry • Thematic clustering of publications in issues • Press releases • Podcasts • E-notifications (tables of contents, ITI’s) J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Increase the chances of publishing in better journals • Definitive rigorous studies of important questions, i.e., fewer better papers • Collaborate with someone who publishes in top journals • Do not be unrealistic in “aiming high” the same reviewers see your paper from journal to journal J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Highly cited papers: If a paper is published but no one reads it, does it really “exist.” • Attractive objective criteria: downloads, citations (SCI) • Problems: • Rate of citation depends on the citation pattern of the field, i.e., large fields (depression, schizophrenia) cite more than small fields (alcoholism). • Does it make a difference whether low or high impact papers cite your publication? (Google Index, J Neurosci 2008) • Balance quantitative assessments of impact by qualitative impressions of impact by outside promotion reviewers (“experts”) J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Trajectory of productivity • “One hit wonders” or people with declining productivity are a problem - universities count on continued productivity (grants) to offset their investment in faculty • Rise in rate and impact of productivity is valued • Trajectory is only moderately predicted by: • Total number of papers • Total number of citations • Average citation/paper J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
H index • The highest number of papers that have that same number of citations (i.e., 10 papers with 10 citations) • Avoids overvaluation of a few highly cited papers • Combines rate and impact of productivity • Roughly related to career stage (Yale casual sample) H index • Assistant Professor ~10-15 • Associate Professor ~20-25 • Early Professor ~30+ Hirsch JE PNAS 2007 J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
PUBLISHING DROVE ME The moral of my story • It is worth considering what you are trying to accomplish when pursuing a program of research • If you pick an important question, pursue it rigorously, and garner resources to support your research, you should generate a sufficient number of high impact publications to get promoted J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
Good Luck! J. Krystal J. Krystal 12/08
What is the point? What your Chair is thinking • Have fun • Establish your career • Have an impact • Seems like a nice person to have around • Getting grants… the Dean will like this • High visibility…I wonder if this • will attract donors?
Outline • Having an impact and getting promoted • How does publishing fit in?
Outline • Having an impact and getting promoted • How does publishing fit in?
What do we mean by impact? • Promotion to associate professor: when people think of you, they remember a published finding • Promotion to professor: when people think of an area of research, they think of you