Dear Dr. Qwerty,
NOTE: The Online Commentary Proposal System is temporarily disabled. Please respond
to this letter with email reply. Thanks.
Below the proposal instructions please find the abstract, keywords, and a
link to the full text of the forthcoming BBS target article:
"Is tenure justified? An experimental study of faculty beliefs
about tenure, promotion, and academic freedom"
By Stephen J. Ceci, Wendy M. Williams, and Katrin Mueller-Johnson
This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and
Brain Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal
providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current
research in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.
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COMMENTARY PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS
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*** TARGET ARTICLE INFORMATION ***
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TITLE: Is tenure justified? An experimental study of faculty beliefs about tenure,
promotion, and academic freedom
AUTHORS: Stephen J. Ceci, Wendy M. Williams, and Katrin Mueller-Johnson
ABSTRACT: The behavioral sciences have come under attack for writings and speech
that affront sensitivities. At such times, academic freedom and tenure are invoked
to forestall efforts to censure and terminate jobs. We review the history and
controversy surrounding academic freedom and tenure, and explore their meaning
across different fields, at different institutions, and at different ranks. In a
multifactoral experimental survey, 1,004 randomly-selected faculty from top-ranked
institutions were asked how colleagues would typically respond when confronted with
dilemmas concerning teaching, research, and wrong-doing. Full professors were
perceived as more likely to insist on academic freedom to teach unpopular courses,
research controversial topics, and whistle-blow wrong-doing than were lower-ranked
professors (even associate professors with tenure). Everyone thought others were
more likely to exercise academic freedom than they themselves were, and promotion to
full professor was a better predictor of who would exercise academic freedom than
was the awarding of tenure. Few differences emerged related either to gender or type
of institution, and behavioral scientists beliefs were similar to scholars from
other fields. No support was found for glib celebrations of tenures sanctification
of broadly-defined academic freedoms. These findings challenge the assumption that
tenure can be justified on the basis of fostering academic freedom, suggesting the
need for a reexamination of the philosophical foundation and practical implications
of tenure in todays academy.
KEYWORDS: Academic Freedom; Faculty Beliefs; Academia; Professoriate; Promotion;
Scientific Misconduct; Tenure; Whistle-Blowing; Ethical Issues
FULL TEXT:
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Ceci-04182005/Referees/
Please reply via EMAIL by April 24, 2006
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Paul Bloom - Editor
Barbara Finlay - Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
bbs(a)bbsonline.org
http://www.bbsonline.org
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