Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Criteria: Does It Matter?

Area of Science:

• Higher Education Research
• Academic Policy
• Scholarly Communication

Background:

• Universities increasingly expect faculty to address complex problems through interdisciplinary collaboration.
• The traditional academic reward system, particularly for appointment, reappointment, promotion, and tenure (ARPT), may not align with this shift towards interdisciplinary scholarship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze how university Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (ARPT) criteria value interdisciplinary work.
• To investigate variations in valuing interdisciplinary work across different academic disciplines and over time.

Main Methods:

• A content analysis of ARPT criteria was performed at a single university.
• The analysis examined criteria across various colleges and disciplines to assess the recognition of interdisciplinary contributions.

Main Results:

• Significant differences were observed in how ARPT criteria value interdisciplinary work across colleges and disciplines.
• Creative disciplines tended to emphasize individual contributions, whereas scientific disciplines showed greater support for interdisciplinary endeavors.
• An increase in the emphasis on interdisciplinary work over time was noted in only a limited number of disciplines as criteria were updated.

Conclusions:

• Current ARPT criteria at the university do not uniformly reflect or reward the growing emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches in scholarly inquiry.
• Disciplinary norms significantly influence the valuation of interdisciplinary work, with sciences generally more accommodating than creative fields.
• The evolution of ARPT criteria over time has led to increased support for interdisciplinary work in only a few select disciplines.