Qualitative Content Analysis of Research and Scholarship Criteria within Promotion and Tenure Documents of US Colleges/Schools of Pharmacy

Objective. To describe criteria for evaluating faculty scholarship within promotion and tenure (PT) guidance documents of US-based colleges/schools of pharmacy. Methods. PT documents were obtained from college/school websites or requested via electronic mail, and institutional characteristics were collected from publicly available online data. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to systematically catalogue document characteristics and criteria for PT. Results. PT guidance documents from 121 (85%) of 142 colleges/schools of pharmacy were analyzed. Institutions were 55% public and equally distributed across Carnegie institutional classifications as well as geographic and extramural funding stratifications. Publications (94%) and grants/contracts (87%) were the most frequently included criteria for faculty advancement. For most scholarship criteria, more than 50% of colleges/schools recognized the criteria within PT guidance documents but did not explicitly require their achievement for promotion and/or tenure. For institutions that required publications for advancement, the most frequently required criterion was publication in peer-reviewed journals (47%). Few colleges/schools (22%) documented a specific number of required publications. Conclusion. This analysis provides a comprehensive review of scholarship criteria in academic pharmacy PT guidance documents. There was large variability among scholarship criteria, and documents often lacked specific language defining scholarship requirements. As a result, faculty may find the documents less helpful for self-assessment and preparation toward promotion and/or tenure. These benchmark data can assist pharmacy faculty and administrators in developing and revising PT guidance documents to include clear criteria and better align with peer institutions.