TL;DR version: A major challenge in expanding open practices is ensure they're fully recognised in academic institutions. We want to find out how being open is valued as part of academic jobs. We are asking for a few minutes of your time to help us find promotion and tenure guidelines and related documents (from your university or others)? Sign up below to help!

Why is it that despite the citation advantage, ethical imperative, economic necessity, taxpayer responsibility, contribution to national development, educational benefit and, perhaps most importantly, the public's right to access to knowledge, are researchers not compelled to make their works publicly available?

We believe this may be because ‘being open’ is not explicitly rewarded in career progression. In order to know how we might change this, we need to examine the extent to which concepts of open access, open science, and public engagement have been incorporated in the review, promotion and tenure (RPT) process that most university research faculty undergo regularly.

As part of the RPT process, all faculty, especially those at the early stages of their careers, rely on the guidelines and forms set out by their department or university. These guidelines and forms capture the stated values of a group of scholars, and in doing so establish the framework by which faculty need to demonstrate the value and impact of their work to the university and the broader scientific community.

We are trying to better understand to what extent acknowledgement or encouragement of open practices is present in these documents. To do so, we need to collect as many documents, from as many departments and institutions as possible.  

Can you help us find these documents?