The number of tenured faculty has shrunk over the last few decades; about a quarter of professors in the United States are now on the tenure track or have tenure. But its influence in academia is pervasive: Researchers everywhere seek results, impact, funding, promotions. The ways in which these are measured and awarded, however, may no longer fit our institutions’ stated values.

Many research universities like MIT require that researchers produce exceptional scholarship to get promoted; some, like MIT, also have missions and make statements that urge both open and equitable access to scholarship and evaluation policies that align accordingly. These goals can conflict with each other. 

This is an annotated set of resources for researchers, academic leaders, librarians, and others who want to support the open sharing of articles, data, code, and other scholarly outputs. It explores some of the issues around promotion and tenure in academia; namely, what is evaluated and how; some of the problems with the current system; and examples of changes to make. 

There are many issues with promotion and tenure processes that this libguide doesn't address, such as gender and racial inequities, lack of communication, and opaque expectations. MIT has been working on some of these issues. 

Data Management at MIT Libraries

DSpace repository

Open Access Task Force at MIT

Scholarly Communications at MIT Libraries

Ask Scholarly Communications