Friends

Login

Service

Steve Koch to Steve's feed, Science 2.0
Dear Open Science Friends -- I am going up for tenure this semester at the University of New Mexico, Dept. Physics. External letters are one of the most important components of my dossier. I am thinking that a co-signed letter from friends I've met in the Open Science community would be highly valued by those people evaluating my tenure case.
I am hoping that some of you would be willing to draft and co-sign a letter of support to be sent to my tenure committe--if so, I would be deeply grateful. Based on e-interactions with me, and in-person at ScienceOnline2010/2011 and ScienceCommons 2010 (Seattle), I think maybe some of you would have positive things to say about my research (I consider our lab's work in open notebook science, open data, etc. to be research) and service (promoting open science being external service). - Steve Koch
The committee wants to see specifically: "..evaluation of the quality, importance, and impact of his research and scholarship, and, if possible, a comparison with other physicists at similar stages in their academic careers." and "...Any comments you wish to make based on your knowledge of his teaching, interaction with students, mentorship, and service will also be appreciated." - Steve Koch
The standard method in our department is to mail letter requests to specific individuals, and to request hard copy signed letters. I've been thinking about this, and while I could ask one of you individually, it seems to me more appropriate, more powerful, and more fun to seek a co-signed letter. This has the risk of the various evaluation committees ignoring the letter, though. One possible way to mitigate that risk would be to have one very cool person print out the letter and sign it and mail it on official letterhead. Not that I want to support the outdated system, but I don't have the power to change much of it while still retaining the chance of tenure. - Steve Koch
If anyone has better ideas, or knows of earlier examples of this from other universities, please post on here, or email me at [email protected] - Steve Koch
I am really grateful for the years of support I've received from many of you open science supporters in my early career. I know I've been super-lucky to even land the tenure-track job and have always known that. I know that tenure would be a huge gift that is not something I deserve or am entitled to. Instead, I look at it as part of the way things work now, and being awarded tenure would be something I would use to help me continue to pursue and promote open science in our research and teaching. I try not to look at it as "me versus the 1000's of better candidates," but rather "can I continue to make significant contributions to our department, university, and the science community." I think for sure I can and thus, I'm pursuing tenure. - Steve Koch
So what am I asking? Without better ideas for how to do this: I am asking for people in the "open science" community who feel they are familiar with some of my lab's open science or my teaching of open science to state a willingness to be a co-signer of a tenure support letter. Then I am asking that group of people to nominate one person to provide the official letterhead and sign (with pen!?) and mail a letter to my committee. I would also provide this person's contact to my tenure committee to send an official request. I would love to see a wide variety of co-signers from around the globe, in as many and any fields in industry, academia, or citizen open science proponents. Where is gets a bit ugly is that I think the reality is the snailmailer should be "of high stature" because I think that's the most likely way to get noticed (please correct me if I'm wrong though!) - Steve Koch
They are looking at October 1 for deadline. Thank you thank you all! And like I said suggestions for a better process are welcomed! - Steve Koch
Do biologists qualify? If so, count me in. - Pawel Szczesny
@Pawel, absolutely! And Thank you! Everyone counts--all fields of academia (people that come to mind immediately are biology, neuroscience, physics, chemistry, library science), industry, and even those who may not currently have a paid position, but are active open science supporters. - Steve Koch
Count me in, natch. Regarding process: I think you are right to want individual letters from "high status" folks, to stay in the comfort zone of your committee. I suggest that the individual letters be different from the co-signed letter, which is a great idea and could be mentioned in the individual letters as "an instance of the wide web of collaborative opportunity opened up by Dr Koch's Open approach". There's no reason that senders of individual letters shouldn't also co-sign the group letter, in fact it would be best if they did. - Bill Hooker
I'm in. - John Dupuis
Do you have any ppt or whatever of your scio10 or scio11 presentations handy? Was there a recording? I'd be happy to do up a short letter and certainly to cosign a joint letter. - John Dupuis
I'm in. I've served on tenure case and appointments-and-promotions committees, so I suspect a group-signed letter won't have as much weight as individual letters from as high up the academic feeding chain as you can go. Send me out-of-band email at [email protected] if you want to discuss. - Dan Gezelter
I tend to agree with Dan. I'm more than happy to sign a community letter, though. - Egon Willighagen
I've never met you personally, so I don't think I should sign any individual letter, but I'd co-sign a letter of course! Just lt us know how you plan on doing that and I'll be there. - Björn Brembs
I'd be happy to help, in any way. I'm so sorry to be a biologist, but at least of a physicist descent (my father), so maybe...? :) - Marcin
I'll happily sign, not high up the feeding chain though I'm afraid :D - science3point0
OK, here's a start: http://piratepad.net/DpuxZJT... I haven't written tenure case letters before so it may need considerable chopping about, but at least we can get started. - Bill Hooker
Great start, Bill! I've co-signed too. - Heather Piwowar
Bill -- That is amazing! Thank you so much! That is wonderfully written and I appreciate it deeply. I've only been in a few departments in my young career, but I can tell you that UNM's physics department is full of faculty that care deeply about education and doing research for the benefit of society. So, I am confident that many of those voting on tenure will be very impressed by the co-signed letter, despite it being new, probably, for our tenure and promotion process. I feel very fortunate to have met everyone in our circles in open science--easily the best part of my career. Thank you! - Steve Koch
@Marcin I love interdisciplinary! Actually our science is focused on biology and have had students in the lab from biology, biomedical sciences, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, physics, and optical engineering. Moreover, I don't worry about the departments or academia / industry--with open science, we almost automatically ignore those credentials--while hard-earned, they're soon trumped by contributions which we can all see, I think. As I said with previous comment, the seriousness of my colleagues in my own department has impressed me, and I trust they will not be putting too much weight in biology versus physics versus library science versus industry, etc. Thank you for your support if you want to cosign as well! - Steve Koch
@Dan Thank you for the experienced perspective! I've sent you an email with further thoughts / questions. I do accept the reality that I need those high-on-the-chain letters. And will seek those for sure. My gut is still telling me that at least for my department, a co-signed letter will add a lot of value, especially a letter such as Bill has drafted. I think for sure after the dust has settled (tenure or not) in 2012, I can get feedback letting me know whether it was viewed postively / strongly / etc. Thank you for the advice! - Steve Koch
@ John -- thank you for offering to co-sign! This is the only video I'm aware of (I think you were there & also my APOLOGIES for inadvertent slam on library journals!). That was the "data discoverability" session in 2011 and it was a ton of fun for me. Here is the link http://friendfeed.com/kochlab... and here are my notes from the session (with links) http://openwetware.org/wiki... - Steve Koch
Here's slides from 2010 Open Notebook Science presentation http://www.slideshare.net/skoch3... - Steve Koch
Here are my notes (with links) for the ScienceOnline2011 Data Discoverability session: and here are my notes from the session (with links) http://openwetware.org/wiki... - Steve Koch
@others who've piped in--thank you! I am excited to have this support - Steve Koch
Steve - I'm happy to co-sign but I do agree with Dan that individual letters are generally preferred. But if your tenure committee is saying that this is the way to go, definitely follow their direction. - Jean-Claude Bradley
I'm happy to sign as well. Best of luck, Steve. - Mr. Gunn
Now that people are back from science online, *bump* - Bill Hooker
Where do I sign.... - Cameron Neylon
@Cameron: http://piratepad.net/DpuxZJT... - Bill Hooker
added my name - Jonathan Eisen
mine too! - Scott Edmunds
Thank you everyone! Jonathan Eisen has graciously signed and mailed in a snail mail copy of the open letter to my committee. I don't expect to hear anything about it (positive/negative/neutral) until December, maybe January. I will of course update you with any news. Thank you again, everyone: so much support made me feel great! - Steve Koch