Effective academic review files are essential for both individual scholar’s and the School’s success in merit review, promotion, and advancement. We have developed the following general guidelines for all ranks of Professor and Professor of Teaching faculty. The guidelines are consistent with the broad criteria for professional advancement set out by the Office of Academic Personnel and reflect our four academic units’ best practices resulting in successful review of faculty in the School of Biological Sciences. Faculty, particularly junior faculty or those new to the UC review process, are encouraged to consult with a faculty mentor or colleague regarding preparation of the file.

I. Research and Creative Activity

Faculty are expected to create knowledge through high quality research and creative activity with an impact on the field. For our School, the most common contributions are peer-reviewed journal articles that report on original life science and/or pedagogical research. Other types of contributions include scholarly review articles, books or book chapters, patents or other intellectual property, and publicly available research products. Research is also disseminated through seminars and conferences. Research faculty are expected to secure the funding necessary to support their scholarly approach. You may also include information about how you have been recognized for your research contributions, such as awards, selection for societies, and scientific and lay articles about your work.

Guidelines for presenting research and creativity activity on the UCI-AP-10 Form

• List publications in the appropriate location using continuous numbering that matches the CV
• Briefly categorize the paper (original research, review, commentary, etc.)
• Describe your role (1-2 sentences); do not give a percent value. It also is helpful to note which of the authors are your trainees or lab members.
• Include collaborations and published works from postdoctoral training if they were accepted or published during the review period. For these papers, it is particularly important to be clear about your contributions to the project, e.g., study design, development or contribution of methods or resources, data collection and/or analysis, manuscript preparation, etc. Indicate what part of the work, if any, was performed after your appointment at UCI.
• Do not include papers in preparation or under review on your UCI-AP-10. Do not include papers that have been deposited in archives such as bioRxiv. These papers may be listed in your CV and described in your research statements as appropriate. Only include papers that are published, in press, or accepted on your UCI-AP-10.
• A paper can be counted once at each rank; papers that are in press but not published may be listed in your AP-10 for the current or next merit review period, but not both.

• Spell out the funding agency.
• Include your role on the project.
• If it is a multiple PI or co-I grant, include information about how much funding is available for your research.
• Do not list pending grants in your UCI-AP-10 form. You may include any information about pending grants with promising scores in your CV and/or in your research statement.
• For training grants:
  – Include training grants in this section if you are PI or co-PI on an institutional training grant. Be clear about the nature of these grants and your involvement.
  – Do not include in this section any funding that supports your trainees, such as individual NRSA, NSF fellowship, or positions on an NIH T32. Instead, we recommend that you include this information under the section on Mentoring.

• For your invited and contributed seminars and talks, be clear about the context (research or mentoring talk, keynote, invited speaker, abstract selected for oral presentation, poster presentation, breakout session, etc.)
• Include information about patents, your activities around translating your research into practical applications, or other kinds of products. Include a clear description of your contribution.
• List scientific commentaries highlighting the significance and impact of your work. This does not include articles that merely cite your papers.
• Describe any awards or honors related to your research contributions, such as election as a society fellow, membership in an academy, etc.
• List and describe in the appropriate sections of the UCI-AP-10 form any publicity or other recognition based on your research.

Guidelines for writing an effective research statement

• Be concise and broadly accessible. Please adhere to a 3-page maximum limit. Include just enough background and focus on aspects of your work during the review period that are difficult to understand from the information in the AP-10 alone. Avoid jargon and unnecessary details.
• It may increase readability to cover different aspects of your research areas in different sections. Make sure to highlight the overall significance of each aspect of your work.
• Refer to your publications based on their number in the CV and UC-AP-10. Numbering should be consistent across your documents.
• To maximize the impact of this statement, it is highly recommended that you share drafts with a mentor or trusted colleague before submitting the file.
• For promotion to tenure, describe the unique contributions of your independent research and how your expertise was synergistic in collaborative projects.

II. Teaching

All faculty are evaluated during each review for their contributions to our core university mission of teaching.

Guidelines for presenting teaching information on the UCI-AP-10 Form

• Your courses should be listed accurately and completely. Make sure that each course is listed, along with student numbers, your portion of the course, and the correct course name and number.
• For your research supervision, make sure that your committees and trainees lists are up to date, relevant to the review period, and that your role is accurately represented.
• If you have trainees who have won awards under your supervision, you may include this information in the teaching section. If you made significant contributions (beyond writing a letter of recommendation), you may wish to explain this. As noted above, you should include information about individual training grants in this section.
• In the section on undergraduate research supervision, you may include information about students who have participated in UROP, Excellence in Research, or other programs.
• Include information about any teaching awards, relevant society teaching acknowledgements, roles, or leadership positions.
• Include information about innovations, curriculum development, etc. and your contributions to each. For innovations and curriculum development, it is useful to include information about how widely these have been adopted and their impact and access; both can be described in more detail in the Reflective Teaching Statement.