Thank you for taking the time to go over the criteria for assessing a candidate's Professional Contribution and Standing (research contribution) as set by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, York University.

The Adjudicating Committee will ask you:

• to provide detailed descriptions and appraisals of the candidate's scholarship commenting on the quality and importance of individual pieces of work;

• where possible, to situate these assessments within commentary on the candidate's professional standing and contribution to the field or discipline, taking into account his/her entire record;

• to evaluate the candidate's qualifications in relation to the York criteria, and to assess whether the candidate's record meets the usual expectations (as you understand them) in the discipline;

• and, if you wish, to provide some comparative assessment of whether the candidate's application would be successful under the tenure and promotion guidelines of your home institution.

Following are the criteria set by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Professional Contribution and Standing

To receive tenure and promotion, a candidate must make a significant, ongoing and independent contribution in research.

1. The candidate must perform substantive research in Computer Science/Engineering or in a related field, liberally defined for the purposes of tenure and promotion.
2. A candidate must have established an ongoing, independent research program. Single-authored contributions unequivocally indicate an independent research program. Collaborative research is encouraged, but the contribution of the candidate must be identified.
3. Candidates must provide the results of their research to their research community through peer-reviewed, archival publications, of a type that are judged important in the candidate's area. Refereed journal articles are the premier sign of research significance. Refereed conference proceedings are also important for assessing the significance of the research. In some fields, an argument might be made that a refereed conference paper is equivalent to a good journal article or that a specific conference is the premier venue for publication in that field. Other refereed contributions such as a monograph or chapter in a book will also be taken into account. Non-refereed contributions will generally carry a lower weight, although invited contributions may be taken as evidence of standing in the field. Candidates are advised to publish in a variety of venues some of which are at "arms-length" (e.g. the candidate is not on the applicable editorial board or program committee).
4. The candidate’s research must be of sufficient stature and merit to attract ongoing peer-reviewed external funding (e.g. NSERC grants). Candidates are expected to apply for, and to receive external peer-reviewed funding to support their research program and their graduate students. The candidate's research must be known within the field, and must be work of the type which the referees judge has (or will have) positive impact on the research of others. Candidates are expected to actively present their work at conferences, workshops and seminars at academic or industrial institutions.

Contributions to the research infrastructure such as serving on journal editorial boards, conference program committees, and conference organization is to be encouraged, but cannot be substituted for actual research contributions. The File Preparation Committee may recommend that this kind of activity be listed under "Service", if such activity adds recognition to the Department and the University. The Adjudicating Committee makes the final decision as to which category this type of activity will be assessed under.
 

Click here to view the complete document which contains the criteria for teaching, research and service.