• Tenure Evaluation for New Faculty
• Ever Wonder What-it-takes to Become the Author of a Book?
• Policy Position Available at USA's NAE
• Encore: Are You a Member or Associate Member?
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Earlier this month Professor Ted Batchman, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada at Reno USA, made an online presentation entitled: "Getting Published in the IEEE Transactions on Education." This presentation was outstanding, and News&Notes is publishing Professor Batchman's closing comments for your consideration.

Professor Batchman said:

I want to make a few closing comments aimed primarily at the young tenure track faculty members in the audience. I just met with a junior faculty member doing a third year review. We are required to review the progress of junior faculty members after their third year. This faculty member is quite concerned about his publication record because he has four papers in the review pipeline and they have been under review for over a year. The faculty member wants to know how many publications he will need for tenure and promotion.

The reason I bring up this particular case is that it illustrates a common problem as well as a tendency we have to quantify everything. The problem is that the journals he has selected to publish his work have a long review cycles which makes it difficult for a tenure track faculty member. He is depending on how timely the reviewers are in providing the paper reviewers and editors for his career. The second point is that it is not just about numbers but about the quality of what he is trying to publish. I feel that we, as university administrators and faculty, tend to look too much at the numbers and not enough at the quality of the publication. That goes back to the question raised earlier about citations of your work. It is difficult to judge the quality without citations or other measures of quality and I am afraid that too often we substitute quantity for quality. As a former Editor-in-Chief, I can say that the authors of many of the papers submitted were more concerned about the number of papers they could submit in a year's time than they were about the quality of what was being submitted.

I know that we cannot change the entire tenure and promotion system, but I hope authors will keep in mind that quality is important. I also hope reviewers will keep in mind that there are many young faculty out there that are depending on a quick review of their papers. Above all, talk to your department chair and/or dean and make sure you understand very early in your career what is expected.

Professor Batchman's complete presentation is located at:

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es/batchman.html

If you are curious about the process, think of this as an asynchronous 'talk show'! You will subscribe to the Education Society's mailing list and you will receive one or two email messages per day. The moderator will ask Dr. Fogel a question and he will respond to it. The next day that process will be repeated. It is expected that this discussion will last for 3-5 days. And there will be a question and answer session at the end of the discussion. If you would like to see a sample of the previous discussion, see: Ted Batchman's presentation entitled: "Getting Published in the Transactions on Education."

[Last minute note:] The IEEE is just now changing the mailing list software from Majordomo to Listserv. This will require a bit of time. It will also require the moderator to become familar with the software before the mailing list is operational. There will be another mailing to you in mid-June with details of how to subscribe to the new mailing list software. If you have already signed-up to receive the email-based discussion you do not need to do anything. The list of subscribers from Ted Batchman's discussion will be automagically subscribed to the new mailing list.

POLICY POSITION AVAILABLE AT USA'S NAE
Here is an email message from Dr. Norman L. Fortenberry, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education at the USA's National Academy of Engineering.

The formal ad is available on-line but this version lacks a lot of details (see: http://nationalacademies.wfrecruiter.com/jobs_details1.asp?Job_id=30312 &Page_Id=5911&Published=1"). A more complete ad will eventually appear in the on-line edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/jobs/) as well as be posted to the AERA job site (http://www.aera.net/jobposts/).

In brief, the National Academy of Engineering is seeking an individual to be responsible for developing and managing the provision of policy, program, and research support to CASEE (http://www.nae.edu/casee). Policy support is provided by serving as staff officer for the Committee on Engineering Education (CEE).

Position requires a master's degree, research experience in the study of education for or practice within technical professions, at least three years of related professional experience, and demonstrated proficiency in conveying scientific/technical/policy information in oral and written form. Applicants must possess experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Desired qualifications include a doctoral degree (in the behavioral or cognitive sciences, education, engineering, or the social sciences).

Salary for this 12-month, full-time position will be based on experience, but is not likely to start above the mid-$70's. I believe the ad in the Chronicle and on the AERA site will indicate that consideration of applications will begin in 2 weeks. This is not a "fixed" posting. We are truly open to applications from any source, but we'd like to fill this position ASAP.

Norman

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Dr. Norman L. Fortenberry, Director
Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education
National Academy of Engineering

"Excellence in Engineering Education: Effectiveness, Engagement, and Efficiency"

Email: nfortenb@nae.edu
Phone: 202-334-1926
WWW: http://www.nae.edu/CASEE

Location: 2101 Constitution Avenue, Room 224
Washington, DC 20418

Mail: 500 Fifth Street, NW
Room NAS 224
Washington, DC 20001

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For more details click here and scroll down the web page to the "IEEE Awards" section. There is a clickable link to the IEEE Web page that will allow you to self-upgrade; or click here to go directly to the IEEE self-upgrade web page.

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