Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo
Authored by Larry Hawk, PhD, & Jennifer Read, PhD
10-20-2025
Based on discussions with faculty during 2024-25, and recent national trends in team science, it is important to clarify how collaboration is considered in the evaluation of promotion cases, especially promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor. To that end, we offer the following guidance, which is based, in part, on the University of Southern California’s APT Manual (2022) and The Science and Practice of Team Science (NASEM, 2025). The overarching points are that independent scientific contributions are vital for promotion cases to be successful, and that engaging in internal and external collaboration is valued and encouraged (though not necessary).
Candidates for promotion should demonstrate programmatic scholarship that is independent of their doctoral and post-doctoral mentors. Importantly, that is not to say that junior faculty should abruptly stop publishing work with those mentors. Indeed, we encourage completing already-initiated collaborations with doc/post-doc mentors and recognize that some degree of ongoing collaboration may be reasonable. However, across the arc of the pre-tenure period, the proportion of one’s research program should increasingly reflect scholarship that is independent of those mentors.
Of course, collaboration goes beyond previous mentors. Junior faculty may develop collaborative relationships with other faculty within the UB Department of Psychology, other UB departments, other Universities, and/or community organizations. Doing so is encouraged, with the caveat that it remains critical for the candidate to clearly demonstrate their own unique intellectual contribution to collaborative/team/interdisciplinary proposals, projects, and products. This evidence may be apparent in grant applications and even manuscripts (e.g., the Contributor Role Taxonomy), but it is wise for the unique contributions to be made clear in the personal statement (not as a major section of the statement but with phrases that highlight points of departure from mentors’ work, key intellectual contributions in other collaborative work, etc.) that is submitted with the dossier. As for collaborations with doc/post-doc mentors, junior faculty should demonstrate that their own record of scholarship is not limited to any single collaborator or team. Candidates may wish to provide their advocate with additional material (not included in the dossier) addressing their roles in collaborative work.
The Department, in turn, is committed to ensuring that this perspective on collaboration and team science is made clear to external and internal letter writers (and may influence the selection of external letter writers; e.g., seeking an evaluator from another discipline in the case of cross-disciplinary work or a supplemental letter from a major collaborator to address the respective contributions), as well as in the Department’s communications with extra-departmental levels of review (namely the Chair’s letter).
This statement provides broad guidance for considering collaboration in promotion evaluation. For a deeper dive, including specific recommendations that may be helpful, see:
NASEM (2025). The science and practice of team science. (Accessed August 5, 2025).
UCAPT (2022). University Committee on Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure: UCAPT Manual 2022. (Accessed August 5, 2025).