Dossier Assembly

Dossiers are presented to this office via a designated Associate Dean or designated staff person in each decanal unit to insure compliance in process prior to submission to the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.  One hard copy of the dossier plus a single digital copy in PDF format are required. We are now requesting the digital files via UB Box. The UB Box must be a dedicated folder for PRB files only (identified with your UNIT acronym in the folder name please) with access given only to the Dean's designee/s and the Assistant Vice Provost, and the digital files must be in final format and must match the hard copy exactly. There is no longer a restriction on placing the ePTF in the digital copy. Text recognition (OCR) should be run on the final (full) PDF after the Dean’s letter has been added. Email copies should come to ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu. Please remember that supplementals are not part of the dossier and should always be submitted separately from the pdf copy of the dossier as outlined below. We now asking for supplementals as digital files only if possible.

The following are some points to remember when assembling the dossier:

  • At every stage, in Adobe Acrobat Pro, for the entire OCR (text recognition) step, you are opening PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro, not Adobe Reader. Please, when saving a document as a PDF, use the “save as” feature rather than the “print to” feature. Because people are still using “print to PDF” (never recommended) instead of “save as PDF” while in Microsoft Word, if this is done too many times, it makes the text very resistant to the OCR tool in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
  • We now require the digital delivery via UB Box. An email notification to Sofia Tangalos
    at ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu that a file is available to download will result in the successful receipt of a dossier or supplementary materials and will result in confirmation once it has been received and logged. The UB Box must be a dedicated folder for PRB files only labeled with your unit Acronym. Example: “CAS PRB Dossiers”.

Regarding Supplemental Materials

  • We now require pdf submissions of supplementary material (where possible & separate from the dossier pdf) as these can be made available to the board in digital format. If you are submitting a digital copy of supplemental materialno hard copy is required. We can now accommodate use of UB Box for the transfer of files. We realize some content must come in hard copy, such as books, CDs and DVDs, etc. DO NOT include copies of articles/publications within the dossier--only one copy is required as supplemental information. While the checklist includes publications as an aspect of the teaching portfolio (see above), it lists those publications as Appendices (supplementary materials). Excessively large teaching portfolio sections make dossier handling and review challenging. This includes Powerpoint presentations, web site materials, and other self-published course supplements. Dossiers containing inordinate amounts of publication materials may be returned for reconfiguration.
  • Regarding digital supplementals; Please combine where possible to reduce the number of pdf files. For example, one set of multiple articles, rather than a single pdf for every article would be most helpful.
  • Insert labeled divider sheets between each section of the original dossier (Sample Divider Set)
  • You will receive a confirmation via email in return. Remember the dossier must come as a single PDF document.

The pdf copy MUST be searchable by keyword and bookmarked (contact Sofia Tangalos for training if required) according to the primary sections of the dossier checklist as follows:

Curriculum Vitae

N.B.: Date of last update should always be listed either under the candidate's header or in the upper right corner

N.B.: Articles in refereed and non-refereed journals should be clearly distinguished from one another and, preferably, listed separately with full pagination and ordered by date of publication. Books should be listed separately from articles. Publications with multiple authors should indicate the senior author, if there is one, either by a note at the beginning of the publications list (if senior author position is consistent throughout) or by an asterisk indicating the senior author in each entry. External funding entries should indicate agency, amount, dates, and, if there are multiple named investigators, which is the PI.

Research Statement

This should be a concise description, no more than 3 PAGES, of the candidate’s research.  Additional material such as abstracts, citation indexes, and other representative material is to be considered supplemental and should be submitted separately as part of the supplemental material as outlined above.

Service Statement

This should be a concise description, no more than 2 PAGES.  It is important to recognize the three categories of service acknowledged by the university and to construct the Statement of Service accordingly.  They include, in order of importance for the promotion review, Professional/Public Service, University Service, and Community Service. 

Teaching Statement

The Teaching Portfolio consists of two parts: the candidate’s statement about teaching and an appendix (supplemental) that selectively documents course materials and evidences of innovative teaching developments and other supporting materials.  For convenience and effectiveness of peer review, the entire Portfolio should be in the range of 20 pages, with the candidate’s statement in the range of 3 PAGES. ) Please note the advisory regarding supplemental materials as relates to the teaching portfolio if that portfolio exceeds the recommended limit of 20 pages. While the checklist includes publications as an aspect of the teaching portfolio (see above), it lists those publications as Appendices (supplementary materials). Supplemental teaching portfolio materials, when included in the body of the dossier, should be identified with a divider sheet so as to distinguish it from the Teaching Statement which should be in the range of 3 pages. Excessively large teaching portfolio sections make dossier handling and reviewing challenging. This includes Powerpoint presentations, web site materials, syllabi and other self-published course supplements. Dossiers containing inordinate amounts of publication materials in each copy may be returned for reconfiguration. See above regarding supplemental materials.

Teaching Portfolio

"The Teaching Portfolio described herein is primarily for the purpose of promotion evaluation rather than for development purposes, summative rather than formative, to emphasize core materials designed for valid peer-review comparisons . . . It is to be concise in its focus, selective in documentation, and economical in format. "III.A.I.7.  TEACHING PORTFOLIO (no more than 20 PAGES) (see Policies). Supplemental teaching portfolio materials, when included in the body of the dossier, should be identified with a divider sheet so as to distinguish it from the Teaching Statement which should be in the range of 3 PAGES. Teaching portfolio material (other than the statement), when it exceeds the recommended limit of 20 PAGES should be submitted as a separate supplemental file.

Quantitative Teaching Evaluations

The results of course/teaching evaluations by students should be included in the dossier and presented in a standardized summary or tabular form, with an analysis of the summary as part of the Chair’s letter.  (Sample Teaching Evaluation Summary) Raw data should not be included but should be available for inspection in the department.  Averaged results, based on data from the Department, College, or School, should be presented as a basis for comparing the candidate’s individual teaching effectiveness with other faculty in the unit. Letters from current and former students (in addition to those solicited for Item 9 of the checklist), reports of student or faculty teaching evaluation committees, the placement and career record of former students, and similar materials may be included here.  These should not be redundancy of materials selected for the Teaching Portfolio (see Item 7 of the checklist), and should be formatted according to a year-by-year chronology.

Non-Confidential Evaluative Letters (with access permissions form attached to each)

Conditions of Employment Letter (redacted)

Confidential Evaluative Letters (with access permissions form attached to each)

Statement of Procedures for Selecting Reviewers and background profiles of reviewers. See checklist for details.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

PLEASE run text recognition on the dossier after it is fully assembled and the digital copy has been made. Some scanners save the pdf as an image. Text recognition should be run after the scan is in it's final iteration after the Dean’s letter is inserted (presumably during the bookmarking process).  As we are now moving to digital archiving in our Institutional Repository, the full dossier must be OCR compliant.

DO NOT:

  • place any documents (Dean's letter, Chair's letter, etc.) in the non-confidential section of the dossier that contain names of external reviewers who have not given permission for the candidate to see their letters. If the Dean or Chair elects to cite these reviewers or their comments, a redacted copy of the letter with all identities deleted must be placed in the non-confidential section, since this is available for the candidate to review. References to external reviewers requesting confidentiality in letters of support by the Dean and Chair  should be referred to without identifying qualifiers such as the names of the university and department they are affiliated with or the identity of their association, journal or publication (when directors or editors). Evidence of reviewers qualifications to review are placed in the section containing the statement of procedures for selecting reviewers. Reviewers identities, CVs etc. are located there. Please refer to III.A.II.3.  BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON EXTERNAL EVALUATORS of our Policies & Procedures page for those guidelines.
  • include full cv's for the external reviewers--a short bio is sufficient. Excessively large evaluator CVs are discouraged. A short bibliography of each outside evaluator establishing the evaluator’s scholarly reputation is acceptable if available. If it is your department’s or unit’s practice to require full cv’s, you may submit them as digital supplementals into a separate but single pdf file rather than individual pdf’s of each reviewer.

Additional detailed criteria for dossier preparation is available in Policies, Procedures, & Criteria for Faculty Personnel Actions.

Processing the ePTF

Final ePTF's should not be **submitted** until you receive the President's letter of approval for the appointment (sent to the candidate, copied to the Dean and copied to each decanal unit's assigned PRB associate), at which time they must be forwarded to the designated approver for processing and signatures at the Provost's and President's level. A copy of the President's letter must be attached with your ePTF request-for-approval submission.

Any questions regarding the PRB or the preparation of dossiers can be addressed to the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs 645-3594 or ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu.