Digital Scholarship and Faculty Promotion: a Concept Analysis

Objectives: Due to Covid-19 pandemic, faculty members had to transition their teaching from an in-person to a virtual format. This endeavor included opportunities for faculty to reframe their courses and adapt teaching techniques integrating best pedagogical practices in an online format. Educational innovations designed by faculty members in the past year can be considered scholarship activities and thus be included in their portfolios and/or promotion dossiers. The aim of this concept analysis is to highlight the integral role digital scholarship should play in the promotion and tenure of dental faculty.
Methods: A thorough search of the literature from 1968-2020 was performed with the support of an expert librarian, following a concept analysis methodology. The search engines queried were: PubMed, ERIC and Google scholar. The MeSH terms included were: “("dental education" OR "Education, Dental" OR "Faculty, Dental" OR "Schools, Dental") AND faculty AND (promotion OR tenure)”. The references identified were reviewed by the authors and only articles relevant to the topic were included in the final analysis.
Results: This search yielded 309 articles in total, different with various levels of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative data. There is abundant literature on this topic in medical education, but limited in dental education. There are various metrics that can be used to assess the scholarship impact in a digital sphere: h-index, i10-index, G-index and Almetrics. The only dental specialties that report evidence on including digital scholarship in their promotion guidelines are pediatric dentistry and oral-maxillofacial surgery.
Conclusions: This concept analysis highlighted the lack of evidence in the use of digital scholarship in promotion guidelines in dental education. Academic institutions should consider adapting and incorporating digital scholarship in their processes. Further studies will investigate the similarities and differences in U.S. dental school promotion and tenure guidelines.