Reassigned Time for Scholarship in the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Guidelines for Expectations
Adopted: March 31, 2007
Scholarly Activity
“Regular reassigned time of three hours per semester will be granted for satisfactory progress on an appropriate program of scholarship as demonstrated by the completion of the equivalent of two significant peer reviewed products within a three year period.”
— from the College of Arts and Sciences Guidelines for Reassigned Time for Scholarly and Creative Activities.
Scholarly activity in the mathematical sciences involves a creative endeavor into some aspect of the individual's discipline. Creative activities in Mathematical Sciences come in all forms from a traditional search for new mathematics and applications to the Scholarship of Teaching to consultation and interdisciplinary application of existing knowledge, etc. To encourage and to support a diversity of specialties and a diversity of talents and interests among its faculty, the Department of Mathematical Sciences recognizes many different forms that scholarly activity may take. These may include (cf. Boyer's Taxonomy):- Contributions to the advancement of knowledge
Through an original inquiry into some topic in the discipline aimed at the advancement of knowledge for its own sake. Activities of this type lead to the dissemination of new knowledge, or interpretation or revision of existing knowledge through scholarly publications such as journal articles, monographs, and other means that require peer review. - Applications of knowledge
Through activities consistent with professional practice in the discipline. Activities of this type lead to the dissemination of new knowledge or the interpretation and transmission of existing knowledge in the recognized area of expertise such as reviewer for a scholarly journal or academic press, software development, editorship of a scholarly journal, professional consultation, and proposal writing and grant acquisition for support of professional activities. - Integration, verification and transmission of knowledge
Through presentations to and interaction with others in the discipline. Activities of this type lead to the successful dissemination of new knowledge or the interpretation of existing knowledge to students and colleagues in the discipline such as presentation at conferences and seminars, developing professional standards, and writing text books and laboratory manuals.
“Good scholarship, in whatever form it takes, must be shared in order to have value. It must benefit more than just the scholar. The results of scholarly activities must be public and must be amenable to evaluation. Techniques appropriate for the evaluation of scholarship in the mathematical sciences include peer review and invitations to present results to others; awards and other forms of recognition; and impact measures, such as citations, evidence of the use of the scholarship in the work of others, evidence of improved effectiveness of a technique or activity as a result of the scholarly contribution…”
— from Report of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Committee on Professional Recognition and Rewards.
Assessing Products of Reassigned Time
“A product must be significant as measured by (a) a process of external peer-review, (b) the product's contribution to a scholarly or creative community beyond Appalachian State University, and (c) the product's contribution to one or more of the four overlapping areas of scholarship initially defined by Ernest L. Boyer”
— from the College of Arts and Sciences Guidelines for Reassigned Time for Scholarly and Creative Activities.
In assessing performance for continuing allocation of reassigned time, it is important that a faculty member's scholarly activities1 receive external review and validation. Examples of externally validated significant scholarly activities include — but are not limited to —- Peer reviewed publications (in print or accepted for publication)
- Publication of books, textbooks, or curricular materials by a commercial publisher (in print or accepted for publication)
- Book chapters (in print or accepted for publication)
- Presentations (referreed) at national or regional meetings (e.g., NCTM)
- Externally funded grant proposal
- Grant proposal submitted to an external agency that is unfunded but has high merit scores and/or received favorable reviews
- Professional consultation2 involving scholarship
- Workshops (development and initial offerings; i.e., if not previously given more than once)
- Editing of scholarly editions, multi-volume works, or scholarly journals
- Certification of new scholarly competencies by professional organizations (e.g., Society of Actuaries examination series)
- Published computer software
- Products or methods granted U.S. patents or commercial licenses
Specific instances will be interpreted by the department chair in consultation with the faculty member and the dean of the College; the chair may also seek input from the DPC as needed. The department chair will inform a faculty member during the annual conference of the chair's assessment of the faculty member's use of reassigned time for scholarship. If a faculty member disagrees with the chairperson's assessment, the faculty member may request that the DPC provide mediation.
A faculty member who has not been reassigned time for scholarship due to inadequate productivity, may request reassignment based on submitting a proposal for a scholarship program that should lead to significant products. Continuing allocation of reassigned time will be based on interim results and satisfactory progress.
“Faculty for whom personnel decisions are based upon assessment of contributions in teaching, scholarship, and service should have teaching assignments that reflect these multiple expectations and allow for attention to non-classroom responsibilities. Teaching assignments above three courses per semester, when combined with other faculty responsibilities, do not allow the time needed to develop and maintain a program of sustained scholarship”
— from Promoting Excellence in Scholarship in the MAA's Guidelines for Programs and Departments
The goal of "Regular reassigned time of three hours per semester" is attainable in many disciplines. However, there are areas in Mathematical Sciences in which this reduction is not consistently available due to heavy demands for teaching and service. Additionally, a 12/6 credit hour teaching load is not equivalent to a 9/9 credit hour load as there are time losses due to restarting scholarship and to recapturing frontiers that have moved forward. When assessment of scholarly productivity is made, the frequency and consistency of reassigned time must have a significant impact on expectations.
Footnotes
1 “Since some research projects in mathematics education require collecting and processing considerable amounts of data (in addition to the overall analysis), the publication process can take several years. As a result, when assessing scholarship produced during periods of only a few years, works-in-progress should be evaluated carefully. Such works-in-progress usually involve data, documents, and perhaps interim reports. They are thus easier to assess than many mathematical works-in-progress which may consist mainly of attempts to prove theorems that will be documented only on the completion of the proofs.”
— from SIGMAA on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs
2 “Institutions are encouraged to include consulting as part of the responsibilities of a statistician. Working with data is intrinsic to a statistician's work and is invaluable as a source of teaching examples and research problems, while providing a valuable service to the consultees. Consulting often involves providing statistical support for researchers from across the campus who need assistance planning studies and analyzing the subsequent data; such support is often essential for the article to be published.”