“If you ask any professor or researcher, I will basically tell you that term is one of the most important moments, if not the most important moment, of their academic career,” he says. Giorgio tripodiA postdoctoral researcher at Kellogg School.
When the term was first introduced, the reasoning behind it was dual: first, to ensure academic freedom and, secondly, to provide scholars enough financial security to undertake more dangerous projects, exploring the new territory to pursue new discoveries. But over the years, questions have emerged as to whether possession remains the most effective type of contract for educational and research institutions to achieve these goals. After all, with the safety net behind them, teachers and scientists may not feel so motivated to continue working as hard or effective as before.
Tripodi worked with a team of researchers – including Dashun WangA Kellogg Management and Organization Professor and Kellogg Technology President, and Benjamin JonesProfessor of Strategy Kellogg – to explore the impact of the term of office on the research efforts of the Academic School.
They focused on the research editions of thousands of teachers from hundreds of institutions granting a doctorate in all the US and reacted from various large -scale data sets with information on a wide range of measurements, from the occupation status of teachers to their publication rates and reports.
The analysis of the data on the data revealed clear differences between the production of a research professor before the term of office and after the term of office.
“On average, we find that there is a rapid increase in publication rates by the year before the term, followed by a sharp break or a plateau, around the time people receive a term,” Tripodi says. “Basically, as you start, grow and produce more, and then [after tenure] There is often a stabilization. ”
In addition, this change in the publication rates around the term of office reflects a deeper shift in researchers’ career orbits, adds Wang, who also directs the school. Center for Science and Innovation (CSSI) and the Northwestern Innovation Institute and connects the Ryan Institute for complexity.
“Scholars also tend to produce their newest ideas after term,” Wang says. “The term, it seems, is more than just a professional milestone – it seems to mark a turning point that affects the way scientists contribute to scientific progress.”
The top of the term of office
For their study, Tripodi, Wang and Jones-Mez with Yifan Qian of Northwestern University, Dakota Murray of Northeastern University and Xiang Zheng and Chaoqun Ni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison-Focused on 12,611 US members of the Prosperity granted “tenure” between 2012 and 2015.
They sorted their term of office until a professor was promoted by the Assistant Professor to the Associate Professor, acknowledging that not all institutions brought about the term of office on the basis of this transition to the title. And watched the teachers’ research for at least five years before and after the change.
The group also gathered a comprehensive set of university and research data from seven different sources, including the Academic Analysis Research Center, which maintains information on hundreds of thousands of teachers from 362 US doctoral institutions.
After analyzing the data, they found that the percentages of the teachers’ publication increased steadily before the Occupation, culminating shortly before they received it, and then generally a post -term plateau. This standard before moving occurred regardless of the number of years a teacher needed to acquire the term.
Although this pattern had a true overall, a closer look at individual disciplines showed that there were severe differences in post -launch publication rates. Lab -based fields such as mathematics and businesses usually saw a sharp and sudden decrease in post -term post rates. On the contrary, the publication rates for laboratory -based fields, such as biology and medicine, remained steadily after the term.
“There are some disciplines that maintain a steady track for publication and there are other disciplines that actually face a decrease after the term,” Tripodi says. “This tells us that the term, which is universal for teachers, interacts with disciplinary rules and the organizational structure of the scientific workforce.”
Research offsets
Tripodi, Wang, Jones and his associates found a similar trend when they evaluated the impact of the research.
They found that the number of research articles “Hit” of a professor published specifically, in the first 5 % of the most mentioned articles in the same year of publication and submarine-generally higher before occupation than after the term of office. They also found that the professors formally published their single research article before taking their term after saying about age.
“Reports are a proxy for the quality of the work done by researchers,” says Tripodi. “Of course, he is an incomplete proxy, but it is a typical way to try to understand how important a piece of research is and as a whole we have noticed that there was a decrease in the number of the highest mentioned documents after the term.”
However, there is a silver investment: the dive in the impact of the research after term of office coincided with an increase in what the team is referred to as innovation.
During the first five years after the term of office, about two -thirds of the teachers began to investigate at least one topic that was new to them and about one third of the teachers stopped investigating one of the issues previously studied. In addition, after the term, teachers were much more likely to participate in research that was new to science as a whole. Indeed, the teachers almost always published their only innovative research article after taking office.
“Unlike the impact of the research, we see that the paper more sleep tends to appear after the term,” Tripodi says. “This is, to some extent, according to the idea that your term of office gives you more job insurance and therefore more freedom to explore and thus start potentially more moving projects.”
“Overall, the US occupation system seems strong and discreet,” Jones adds. “Owning the production of ever -increasing production during the years of” term clock “, followed by a shift to more new and exploratory work.
A certain degree of security
There are terminations for various government positions, such as the Judges of the Supreme Court and full -time FEMA employees, as well as for certain high -level roles. The academic term remains unique, as it also includes a steady time test and a high-grade “up-out” decision. However, in some ways, the underlying benefit of term may resemble the benefits associated with other types of contracts that offer a high level of job security, such as guaranteed contracts common in professional sports.
“To some extent, the results of the study may apply to different types of organizations that seek to balance production and risk taking,” Tripodi says.
“Understanding the relationship between the orbits of term and research is important not only for academic institutions and individual researchers, but also for the general public, given the role of public funding in the support of university research and the role of scientific developments in Benefits, “says Wang. “Technological progress is based on scientific productivity and on the pursuit of the impact and innovation that the term seems to be formed.”
For example, organizations that want to enhance innovation could benefit from finding that the security of the term can promote innovation and risk taking. “If you want to encourage innovation,” says Tripodi, “a degree of security should be provided, because people need this freedom to explore and push borders in directions that are potentially more dangerous.”
On the other hand, the authors of the study note that their findings, even if they are powerful, reflect the general standards rather than causal relationships. Therefore, they say, it remains crucial to recognize the shades of specific contracts and work environment before making sweeping decisions.
“While our study raises important questions about future research on the impact of similar motivation structures in other work environments,” says Wang, “its consequences for scientific careers and progresses are clearer.”
