Evidence of leadership in the field of research

[kerprof]

I am looking at the criteria for promotion to professor rank at our college/university. One of the criteria is the evidence of leadership in my field of research.

Please advise how to work towards/present the evidence of leadership in my field of research.

[Ruralguy]

Other than publications and grants, I would think invited talks, officer of discipline society, editor of journal, etc. This can be discipline specific, but I think much of this would apply across many disciplines.

[Parasaurolophus]

Yeah, publications, invited talks (colloquia, keynotes, etc.), prizes, editorial board memberships or work, leadership roles in your professional associations, that sort of thing.

[lightning]

I am looking at the criteria for promotion to professor rank at our college/university. One of the criteria is the evidence of leadership in my field of research.

Please advise how to work towards/present the evidence of leadership in my field of research.

Your university can't give you any examples? Maybe you have to look for them. 

The generic examples given above work, but they are kind of a table stakes. For the slam dunk,* check out the recent activity of recently promoted full professors at your university (both in your research area and in general).

* Yes, I have NCAA Basketball on my mind.

[euro_trash]

Working within regional, national and especially international networks.

[mamselle]

Keynote speaker for several large international conferences; multiple book prizes for an upscale press publication; redefinition of research paradigms that explain sociological changes by previously untried methodologies...in the humanities...

Crossover innovative discoveries that went from bench lab to pharma production in a short time; acknowledged cutting-edge work that integrates, say a math finding with an astronomy puzzle, and solves the latter; discovery of six new species in the wild that link up previously unmapped DNA findings...

You know, that sorta thing...

M.

[fizzycist]

In experimental science and engineering, this usually means PI on big grants.

[Hibush]

Keynote speaker for several large international conferences; multiple book prizes for an upscale press publication; redefinition of research paradigms that explain sociological changes by previously untried methodologies...in the humanities...

Crossover innovative discoveries that went from bench lab to pharma production in a short time; acknowledged cutting-edge work that integrates, say a math finding with an astronomy puzzle, and solves the latter; discovery of six new species in the wild that link up previously unmapped DNA findings...

You know, that sorta thing...

M.

It is also helpful to have these achievements validated by getting a "best research" award from your professional society. Your buddies in the society can make that happen.

[mamselle]

It's also useful (having seen a horrible situation where this did NOT happen) if you have people speaking well of you going up the pipeline.

I saw an excellent scholar, supported by her department, her boss, her school, and the whole division, turned down by the provost for want of name recognition (and maybe the fact, in that day, that she was, unpardonably, female--although, so was her boss).

She left and blessed another school north of the border with her presence for the next twenty years--made dean in two, in fact--while everyone else gritted their teeth, shook their heads, and got on with things a bit more dispiritedly.

There was even a faculty fight on her behalf but the provost wasn't budging.

Stupid, really.

M.