UC Irvine

In academic medicine, it is common practice for faculty to be evaluated for promotions and tenure using multiple factors including their scholarly works, as well as other contributions to their fields. In the digital age however, it is unclear how these methods of promotions and tenure align with the demands of the current health care system to accommodate rapid improvements in science and technology that could enhance clinical practice. Social Media and Digital Scholarship (SMADS), is used in various aspects of academic medicine but the impact that such scholarship plays in Promotions and Tenure (PT) has not been universally defined. We studied the role of SMADS in the PT process by quantifying the presence of SMADS associated text in the PT guidelines for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accredited medical schools’ in the United States and Puerto Rico. We analyzed PT guidelines for 138 of the 151 eligible medical schools for the presence of SMADS associated keywords. We found that 126 of the PT guidelines included SMADS associated text, with only 83 schools implementing them in the context of Social Media and Digital Scholarship for Promotions and Tenure as judged by two study team members, but none offered well defined criteria for evaluation of SMADS or guidelines on its role in promotion and tenure. We found that social media and digital scholarship may have a role in the current inner-workings of the programs studied, but that role is not detailed and no universally accepted criteria exist.