Publication Metrics and Record of Pharmacy Practice Chairs

Teaching, research, and service arethe historic goals of institutions of higher learning. Research, traditionally understood as the scholarship of discov-ery, is 1 of 4 types of scholarship pro-posed by Boyer.1 This model proposed equal consideration of the scholarship of discovery, integration, teaching, and ap-plication in faculty academic progres-sion. Regardless of the type of scholar-ship, however, peer-reviewed publica-tions are an essential component of scholarship.2-4 Indeed, publications are the archival record of a discipline and provide a historical record of its progres-sion. Department chairs are usually respon-sible for evaluation and mentoring of all departmental faculty. Whether this is done personally or through delegation, chairs provide oversight, direction, and support for junior faculty as they devel-op their scholarly pursuits. They evaluate scholarship for annual performance re-views and for tenure and promotion con-siderations. In their role as academic lead-ers and mentors, chairs should demon-strate skills in conceptualizing and completing scholarly papers. The recent proliferation of new colleges of pharmacy and the “graying ” of the academy have in-creased the demand for pharmacy practice faculty and qualified department chairs, which has potentially diluted the pool of qualified candidates. These factors have put added pressure on maintaining quality in the pharmacy practice faculty and chair ranks. Bibliometric methods can be used to analyze the schol-arly output of faculty and scientists.5,6 In the past, the dis-cussion of a faculty member’s scholarly output might hav