Aiming for tenure? Enhance your research’s visibility

For many academics, tenure is the ultimate career goal, offering job security and opportunities for academic advancement. A faculty member recently granted tenure might be able to dedicate more time and resources to conducting ground-breaking research in their field, leading to advancements in knowledge and real-world applications. Researchers can leverage their new-found job security when tackling complex problems and contribute valuable insights to their respective fields. Support personnel and administrators can benefit from the relationship-building opportunities that this long-term stability brings. In this article, I will explain how to demonstrate and maximise your impact to help you towards achieving tenure.

Enhance your visibility

If you want to increase your chances of gaining tenure, share your research widely. Use platforms such as ResearchGate, ORCID, Google Scholar, SCOPUS, Academia and others. You can also publish it on relevant non-academic websites, but when doing so ensure you are aware of SEO principles, which involve researching appropriate keywords and adding them to your text to increase its chances of ranking well in search results. 

You will need to use different strategies to reach different demographics. Target audiences for knowledge sharing in science research include other researchers and industry professionals, while audiences for population health research include researchers, administrators and policymakers. Equipped with this knowledge, you can target the relevant journals and websites. 

Build and maintain relationships with individuals, groups or institutions that share common interests or goals. Use social media platforms such as LinkedIn to promote your work and start conversations. 

A robust and diverse research portfolio is essential for a successful tenure-track application in any field of expertise. For example, when applying for a tenure position in management, you can present papers you’ve published on cutting-edge management theories and methodologies. Additionally, you can emphasise your track record of securing grants that funded innovative research initiatives. Highlighting accolades you’ve earned for your contributions to the field will underscore your expertise and potential for continued scholarly growth.

• Resource collection: Is your academic career cleared for take-off?
• Prepare for promotion: how to develop a strategy for success
• What is tenure – and how to get it

Choose the right journals

Scholars can optimise their influence by focusing on journals with high impact. The following sources are useful in this case: 

• SCOPUS: a database of peer-reviewed literature on science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
• SCImago Journal Rank: provides rankings based on citation data from the Scopus database. It considers the number of citations a journal receives and the prestige of the journals that cite it.
• Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List: evaluates journals in business disciplines based on a peer-reviewed classification system. Journals are ranked in categories (A*, A, B and C) based on quality and impact.
• Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide: like ABDC, ABS ranks academic journals in business and management disciplines based on peer review and expert judgement.
• Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft Ranking: a German ranking system for business journals, assessing journals based on relevance, scientific quality and internationality.
• Financial Times Top 50 Journals: a list of top journals in business and economics often referenced by researchers and institutions worldwide.
• Computing Research and Education (CORE) Ranking: focuses on computing science and engineering journals, categorising them into different tiers based on quality and impact.
• Web of Sciences: a comprehensive research platform that provides access to high-quality scholarly literature and citation databases covering various disciplines. It offers a range of tools and features to support research activities and facilitate knowledge discovery.

The job security and increased opportunities that tenure brings are a draw for many. By enhancing your networking skills and increasing the visibility of your work, you can demonstrate value to your institution and improve your chances of gaining this coveted position.

Abhishek S Rao K P is an assistant professor (selection grade) in the department of commerce at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

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