Promotion guidelines: to Associate Professor and Professor
Academic promotion at the University of Toronto is based on accomplishments in:
- scholarship, which may be expressed as research and/or creative professional activity;
- teaching; and
- service to the university.
The greatest weight will be given to scholarship and teaching.
Long-term service in and of its own does not qualify for academic promotion.
Keeping your profile up to date
We strongly recommend you keep your online profile up to date in the Faculty Directory.
You can update your profile at any time by completing the online form or emailing lmp.communications@utoronto.ca.
Contact
For any questions about the process or documentation required, contact:
Xilonem Lopez
416-946-0552
lmp.hr@utoronto.ca
Timeline for promotions 2023-2024
Feb 2023 |
Call to submit Letter of Intent (LOI) |
Mar 2023 |
LOI deadline: March 24, 2023 |
Apr 2023 |
Department Chair and Departmental Promotions Committee (DPC) Co-Chairs conduct LOI review in April 2023 Notification to faculty to prepare promotion dossier for departmental review |
May 2023 |
Full dossier deadline: May 26, 2023 |
Jun 2023 |
LMP Promotions Committee adjudication meeting: June 20, 2023 DPC's recommendation (possible outcomes: to proceed or delay) |
Sep 2023 |
Deadline to upload final version of promotion dossier in Laserfiche: September 5, 2023 |
Oct 2023 |
LMP solicits reference letters |
Dec 2023 |
LMP Promotion Committee reviews reference letters and makes final recommendation to the Department Chair |
Jan 2024 |
LMP submits documentation to Temerty Faculty of Medicine Decanal Committee: January 15, 2024 |
Feb 2024 |
Temerty Faculty of Medicine Decanal Committee review: February 13-16, 2024 |
Mar 2024 |
Deferral meetings: March 19-20, 2024 |
Jul 2024 |
Effective date of promotion: July 1, 2024 |
Deadline 1: Letter of Intent to be submitted by March 27, 2023
Deadline: Monday, March 27, 2023
Submit documents by email to Xilonem Lopez at lmp.hr@utoronto.ca.
You can download the instructions below as PDF for printing.
1. Letter of Intent (LOI)
- Identify rank and platform for promotion [e.g. excellence in at least one of the following categories - Research, Creative Professional Activity (CPA), Teaching. Teaching must at least be competent.]
- Summarize your accomplishments since your last promotion or since your appointment.
For those applying based on CPA, please indicate your contribution in terms of:- Professional Innovation and Creative Excellence,
- Contributions to the Development of Professional Practices, and/or
- Exemplary Professional Practice.
Describe your accomplishments and impact at the national level (for Associate Professor) or international level (for full Professor.)
Detailed information about the different platforms and criteria for promotion can be found on the LMP website. You are encouraged to review the Promotion Manual and present your accomplishment following its terminology.
2. CV (must use the Temerty Faculty of Medicine CV template).
Contact lmp.hr@utoronto.ca to obtain LOI template and read sample letters.
You will be contacted by mid-April with information on next steps.
Deadline 2: Promotion dossier to be submitted by May 26, 2023
Deadline: Friday, May 26, 2023
Submit documents by email to Xilonem Lopez at lmp.hr@utoronto.ca.
You can download the complete list below as a PDF for printing.
1. Checklist, Summary of Evidence of Impact, Table of Content
Submit checklist (word doc) and summary of evidence of impact (word doc).
Include a Table of Content for large dossiers, i.e. if you have many attachments.
2. Cover letter (this is your Letter of Intent)
Address the following points in your letter:
- reason for seeking promotion,
- short narrative of your academic career history,
- for faculty with clinical duties, briefly describe your job description with percentage split between clinical and academic activities,
- brief summary of your accomplishments and its impact since your last promotion or since your appointment (please list your most significant accomplishments first):
- research, if applicable
- creative professional activity, if applicable
- teaching
- administrative service
- outline future direction.
Write your letter so that a non-specialist in your field could understand.
Promotion at the Associate Professor level must be supported by evidence of an impact (recognition) at the national level. Scholarship for promotion at the level of Full Professor must be supported by a distinguished international reputation.
3. Curriculum Vitae
Use the Temerty Faculty of Medicine CV template (word doc).
4. At-a-Glance Summary
Template for Excellence in Research
Template for Excellence in CPA
5. Most significant publications
List your five most significant publications, including a short paragraph describing the significance and your contribution.
Include copies of these publications in your dossier.
These papers must be since your last promotion or since your appointment to LMP.
6. Research documentation
Research Statement and impact (as a pdf document), if applicable.
Your Personal Citation Report: use Web of Science or Scopus, via The UofT Gerstain Science Library (UTORid needed)
Attach Data Summary Sheets where applicable (use the templates below)
- Data summary sheet, research awards (word doc)
- Data summary sheet, refereed publications (word doc)
- Data summary sheet, research supervision (word doc)
7. Creative Professional Activity (CPA) documentation, if applicable
If this section applies to you, please read the LMP Promotions Task Force - CPA report.
It is important to write a compelling narrative to describe your activities.
- Complete a Creative Professional Activity (CPA) report using the template (word doc).
Your report must give the reader a clear and concise view of your accomplishments, the impact and the evidence of this impact.
The report should:
- describe your key accomplishment(s) since your last promotion (describe each accomplishment separately), stating clearly your role in the accomplishment. It may be necessary for you to provide some background for reviewers who are non-specialist in your field.
- explain the level of impact or influence – local, national or international position, and affected stakeholders (clinicians, hospital staff, public).
- include a brief description of how this accomplishment showed exemplary professional practice (e.g. was it adopted by other institutions, etc.).
- address the sustainability of the work. What is the vision for the future? Address funding sustainability, if applicable.
- include evidence/proof of impact. For example attach:
- letter(s) of support from other organizations who have adopted your initiatives
- invitations to address major conferences
- conference organization activities
- peer-reviewed publications
- website
- workshops
- uptake of your program
- new collaborations
- editorials that illustrate international impact of publication
- review articles referring to work
- symposium presentations
- samples of media reports and news clippings
- membership in think-tank organizations
- special awards and recognition received as a result of your work.
Attach supporting documents for each CPA activity. For each CPA activity, collate supporting documents into one pdf.
For Quality Improvement activities that have not been published, it is highly recommended that you submit a QI report, e.g. Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence template on the Squire website.
8. Teaching and education documentation
Complete a Teaching and Education Report.
Your report must include:
- a statement of your teaching philosophy, including an assessment of the impact of teaching activities. See Developing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy on the Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation website.
- all your activities related to the administration, organizational and developmental aspects of education. Describe the nature and extent of your involvement and level of responsibility, clearly indicating when you had a major responsibility for the design of a course.
- a summary of your teaching goals within the next 5 years.
- teaching evaluation reports or assessments. For example:
- summaries of course assessments, per course, per year
- results of peer assessments of teaching effectiveness
- solicited and unsolicited testimonial letters from colleagues
- letters from senior members of the Faculty who have made personal observations at national meetings
- CE courses and/or seminars and symposia (if applicable).
- Attach supporting documentation such as course and lecture outlines, letters of invitation to teach at other centres, etc.
- Data Summary Sheet, Teaching using the template (word doc).
- Data Summary Sheet, Mentorship using the template (word doc).
9. Administrative service documentation
Write a brief outline of your service activities for:
- the department;
- the Temerty Faculty of Medicine;
- the University;
- your discipline; and
- your professional community or other targeted communities.
Attach supporting documentation such as relevant documents that demonstrate the nature and impact of your service achievements.
10. Referee lists
The Chair will seek assessments from other departments at the University of Toronto where you hold cross-appointments, and may seek assessments from other referees as well.
External referees
Complete the external referee form (word doc), ensuring contact information is up to date.
Submit a maximum of three referees.
These referees must be:
- external to the University of Toronto and its affiliated hospitals.
- arms-length referees: no former supervisors, collaborators (within the last 5 years) or students. They cannot be co-authors, co-investigators or co-applicants on grants.
- Their academic rank must be equal to, or greater than, the rank you are seeking for promotion.
Internal referees
These are no longer mandatory, but you may submit these if you wish.
Internal referees will be sought beyond your local institution and will not necessarily be those you submit.
Complete the internal referee form (word doc), ensuring contact information is up to date.
These referees must be:
- internal to the University of Toronto and its affiliated hospitals but NOT a faculty member of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology (no cross-appointed LMP faculty). See the directory for a list of LMP appointed faculty.
- arms-length referees: no former supervisors, collaborators (within the last 5 years) or students. They cannot be co-authors, co-investigators or co-applicants on grants.
- Their academic rank must be equal to, or greater than, the rank you are seeking for promotion.
Colleague referees
Complete the colleague referee form (word doc), ensuring contact information is up to date.
Colleague referees should be able to understand your scholarly contributions and its impact in the field.
It can be a current or previous collaborator (i.e. co-author on papers or co-PI/ co-applicants on grants).
Colleague referees can be:
- LMP faculty;
- affiliated with UofT; or
- external to UofT.
Preferably their academic rank should be equal to, or greater than, the rank you are seeking for promotion.
Student referees
Complete the student referee form (word doc), ensuring contact information is up to date.
Student referees can be current or former students.
Sample dossiers
You can review sample promotion dossiers from the LMP Office. Contact Xilonem Lopez to request access lmp.hr@utoronto.ca.
Deadline 3: Final promotion dossier to be submitted by September 3, 2023
Deadline: Tuesday, September 3, 2023
LMP deadline might be adjusted pending Decanal Promotions Committee deadline.
Submit documents: via Academic Promotions Laserfiche (online submission)
You can download the below as a PDF for printing.
1. Review your web profile
Review your research profile on the LMP website.
We will send your profile to potential referees to give them a brief background on your academic activities.
You can update your profile at any time by completing the online form or emailing lmp.communications@utoronto.ca.
2. Submit documentation via the Academic Promotion System
If the LMP Departmental Promotions Committee (DPC) recommends you move forward in the promotion process, you will need to submit your final dossier electronically using the Temerty Faculty of Medicine online academic promotion system, Laserfiche.
You will receive an email with your unique Promotion ID.
Upload documents as PDF with a maximum file size of 10MB. Separate large documents if necessary.
File names should not contain spaces, hyphens, commas, brackets or extra dots. Follow the naming convention as noted below in the table.
Document |
Submit under Laserfiche document category |
File should be named as |
---|---|---|
1. Table of Content (recommended for a large dossier) |
Curriculum Vitae |
Lastname_TableofContent |
2. Cover letter |
Curriculum Vitae |
Lastname_CoverLetter |
3. Curriculum Vitae |
Curriculum Vitae |
Lastname_CV |
4. Summary of 5 most significant publications, including a short paragraph describing the significance and your contribution |
Curriculum Vitae |
Lastname_SigPublicationsSummary |
5. Copies of your 5 most significant publications |
Curriculum Vitae |
Lastname_SigPub1 |
6. Research Statement |
Research |
Lastname_ResearchStatement |
7. Data Summary Sheet, Research Awards (if applicable) |
Research |
Lastname_DataSummary_ResAwards |
8. Data Summary Sheet, Refereed Publications (required for all promotion candidates) |
Research |
Lastname_DataSummary_Publications |
9. Data Summary Sheet, Research Supervision (if applicable) |
Research |
Lastname_DataSummary_ResSupervision |
10. Citation Report |
Research |
Lastname_CitationReport |
11. Creative Professional Activity Report |
Creative Professional Activity |
Lastname_CPAReport |
12. CPA attachments. Organize your attachments so that all related documents are combined as one file. 'Bookmark' large PDF files. |
Creative Professional Activity |
Lastname_CPASupportingDocs_Theme1 |
13. CPA appraisal letters from community agencies, colleagues, etc. (if applicable) |
Creative Professional Activity |
Lastname_CPA_LettersofSupport |
14. Teaching and Education Report |
Teaching and Education |
Lastname_TeachingandEducationReport |
15. Data Summary Sheet, Teaching |
Teaching and Education |
Lastname_DataSummary_Teaching |
16. Data Summary Sheet, Mentorship (if applicable) |
Teaching and Education |
Lastname_DataSummary_Mentorship |
17. Teaching Evaluation Scores (TES)/ other evaluations. Upload all evaluations as one file, if possible or combine TES scores per level, e.g. all undergraduate medical TES scores as one file. |
Teaching and Education |
Lastname_TES_Undergrad |
18. Administrative Service Documentation (highly recommended to submit even a brief report) |
Administrative Service |
Lastname_AdminReport |
Find out more about the Promotions Committee: LMP Departmental Promotions Committee (DPC) Membership
More information and resources about promotion
Find out what you need to evidence to be considered for promotion in your teaching, research, creative professional activities, and administrative duties.
Useful resources and policies related to promotion.
Find out more about the annual workshop designed to help you through the promotions process.
See who has been promoted recently in LMP and read their Q&As giving advice.