An Introduction to the Blog Part II

In 2018, an R1 U.S. university was looking to hire an assistant professor in social psychology, and received 218 applications for the position, making four cuts using a set of predetermined criteria.

The first cut was a simple count of publications in top journals, such as Nature and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Applicants with a sufficient number of such publications under their belts (1 for grad students and 2 for postdocs and early career faculty) moved forward. Those without were cut unless they had a strong research and diversity statement, in which case they were “pulled back up.”

This first cut left 93 applicants (only 9 were pulled back up).

The second cut reviewed the applicants’ research and diversity statements, leaving only 36 applicants.

The third cut examined all materials except teaching statements, leaving 12 finalists who received Skype interviews. The average finalist at this stage had nearly 10 first-author papers, 3 in top journals. Although 3 finalists were postdocs and 2 were graduate students, 7 were already faculty, and the initial offer of the position was made to one of the faculty.

Such a story is an absolutely commonplace account of the state of play on the academic job market.

Notes-

-Reinero, Diego A. “The path to professorship by the numbers and why mentorship matters.” Behavioral and Social Sciences at Nature Research, socialsciences.nature.com/posts/55118-the-path-to-professorship-by-the-numbers-and-why-mentorship-matters.