REFLECTIONS
ON TENURE
Prof.
Evan Porteus
Stanford University
INFORMS Doctoral
Colloquium
November, 1996
Tenure
- Background
- Current
Trends
- Pitfalls
of the University System
- Strategy
for Achieving Tenure
Background
- Reasons
for It
- Criteria
for Attainment
- How Tenure
Review Works
- Myth
of Life After Tenure
Current
Trends
- Teaching
- Bridging
Theory and Practice
Pitfalls
of the University System
- Academic
Feedback is almost all Negative
- Every
professor is a mini-CEO
- External
positive reinforcement comes from teaching and not research
- To enjoy
yourself you must enjoy teaching
- To enjoy
yourself you must LOVE doing research
- You must
publish.
Strategy
for Achieving Tenure
- Getting
Your Research Published
- Quality
vs. Quantity
- How to
Hit Home Runs
- Research
Collaboration
- Multidisciplinary
Research
- Career
Evolution
Getting
Your Research Published
- Develop
a big ego and a thick skin
- Look for
ways to interpret negative referees' reports positively
- Be persistent:
Keep revising and resubmitting
- Be pragmatic
- Emphasize
the positive about others' work and your own. (Avoid criticism and even
slight insults of other authors.)
Quality
vs. Quantity
- One home
run, combined with mostly very good work, and nothing embarrassing can
get you tenure
- One Strike
out (bad paper) can cost you tenure: Publish and perish
How to
Hit Home Runs
- Read the
Literature after doing the research
- Make it
easy for readers to understand your ideas. EMPHASIZE CLARITY!
- Dantzig
Theorem: Don't put more than one major idea in a paper
- Stress opening
up an area, not completing the research in it
- Know your
audience and write explicitly for it
- Consider
writing papers for more than one audience
- Translations
of theory to practice
Research
Collaboration
- Do Both
Joint Work and Singly Authored Work
- Accept and
seek out mentors in your new institution
- Invest time
to inform/educate/impress your peers, not just your seniors
Multidisciplinary
Research
- Big need
- But a dangerous
road
Career
Evolution
- Pursue Your
Loves
- Move on
the bridge from theory/method/technique toward practice
- Always work
on improving your teaching