Documenting and evaluating Data Science contributions in academic promotion in Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Data Science
- Keywords
- Team Science, Academic promotion, Tenure, Professional developent
- Copyright
- © 2017 Waller
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. Documenting and evaluating Data Science contributions in academic promotion in Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3204v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3204v1
Abstract
The dynamic intersection of the field of Data Science with the established academic communities of Statistics and Biostatistics continues to generate lively debate, often with the two fields playing the role of an upstart (but brilliant), tech-savvy prodigy and an established (but brilliant), curmudgeonly expert, respectively. Like any emerging discipline, Data Science brings new perspectives and new tools to address new questions requiring new perspectives on traditionally established concepts. We explore a specific component of this discussion, namely the documentation and evaluation of Data Science-related research, teaching, and service contributions for faculty members seeking promotion and tenure within traditional departments of Statistics and Biostatistics. We focus on three perspectives: the department chair nominating a candidate for promotion, the junior faculty member going up for promotion, and the senior faculty members evaluating the promotion package. We contrast conservative, strategic, and iconoclastic approaches to promotion based on accomplishments in Data Science.
Author Comment
Lance A. Waller is Rollins Professor and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Prof. Waller also served as Interim Chair in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University School of Medicine.