Criteria of Evaluating a Candidate for Scientific Position
Gajendra P.S. Raghava
Saturday, 08 August 2009 11:38 UTC
In this form we are discussing problems in hiring new faculty in Indian institutes. Lets consider a imaginary institute where you are responsible (full power, without any interference) for hiring new faculty. You advt. the post and you got lots of application and you need to hire limited persons. What criteria you will use to select a candidates for scientific job (e.g., number of publications, impact factor of journals, h-index, g-index, interview, first author, corresponding author), , lets aim of your institute is to do world class science. Aim of this discussion is to generate consensus among members of this blog for hiring a scientist in ideal institute. This is very important for creating rules (criteria of selection) for hiring faculty which is acceptable to everyone. This will be a great job if this forum can generate criteria, at least institute/univ which are really serious/honest may implement these rules. Sometime senior faculty are honest in selection but persons not got selected make a big issue (see message of NameDoesNotMatterContentMatter) in previous thread. If we have transparent rules we may question the selection authority. Pl remember ratio of honest persons is same in senior faculty and students as all originated from same background. These are my personal views and I am really interested detailed consensus rules for hiring a scientist.
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Anonymous
Interesting debate.
IMTECH has recently selected 6 people. They have also put the list of shortlisted candidates on their website, see here. If you analyze these lists carefully, you can clearly see there is no shortage of qualified people from all over the world who are interested in working in India. However, out of 6 appointed, 4 are from within India. And incidentally 4 out of 6 work on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It would be interesting to compare publication records of those not selected with those selected. Atleast half a dozen among those not selected seem to have really good record. -
Anonymous
Education
Xth Examination first, second and third class 10, 5 and 0 points, respectively.
XIIth Examination first, second and third class 10, 5 and 0 points, respectively.
BSc/Btech/Bpharm/BS/BVSc/MBBS Examination first, second and third class 10, 5 and 0 points, respectively.
Masters degree Examination first, second and third class 10, 5 and 0 points, respectively.Rank in the respective Board 10 points
Research Degree
MSc or MPhil by Research from top 500 universities of world or top 20 univs of India 10 points (no marks for first or second class etc).
PhD from top 100 univs of world 20 points, top 101 to 500, 15 points in addition to 10 points obtained for PhD degree.
PhD from top 20 Indian Univs/Institutes 10 points.
Scholarships/Fellowships
International Scholarship for PhD or MS degree 10 points
CSIR JRF SPM category 20 points, JRF of CSIR, ICAR, ICMR 10 points, GATE above 80% 10 points and equivalent examinations such as JNU CBE or JNU entrance exams 10 points. Clearing just NET 5 points.
Any grant/funding obtained during PhD for travel for a conference 5 points (if there is a competition)
Grant for Postdoc 20 points.
Publications (Pubmed discoverable)
First author and corresponding author 20 points
Corresponding author 15 points
First author 10 points
Other author with significant contribution 5 pointsAny paper in a high impact factor journal should be given due respect and closely scrutinized by candidates capabilities. Papers in Nature depend on science, PI, connections and research area in addition to luck!!
Reviews
First author and corresponding author 20 points
Corresponding author 15 points
First author 10 points
Other author with significant contribution 5 points
Patents
20 points if obtained solely by candidate
10 point if obtained as a lab memberSeminars/Lectures
Few fields like engr and physical sciences accept seminars and lectures in conferences as highly respectable. No one is invited or sent to give a talk in a conference if person is not good.
10 points for seminars or talks delivered in International Conferences
Poster communication
I know it is easy to publish posters but think about Gordon conference and other conferences where abstracts are reviewed and short listed too.
5 points for these.
Research Proposoal
Ask for minimum of 2500 words as a research proposal and score it according to candidate’s capabilities and publication record. Also read the potential of a project wrt institutes interests and feasibility in next 5 years.
References
Three letters with speicific questions
A) Academic capabilities
B) Understanding the concepts
C) Grasp of the subject
D) Independence
E) Work ethics
F) Ability to teach others and so onOn the basis of above criteria lets set a minimum score required for interview call. May be 100 or 125.
After shortlisting
A general talk (for students, Postdocs and faculty).
A white board talk without slides just a white board and a pen, strictly scientific for faculty members.
One to one meeting with atleast 10 faculty members
A board meeting to discuss whether the candidate is matching his/her publication records and CV claims.
Post selection
Offer position for 5 years with conditions
a). Clearing CSIR JRF exam
b). Successful establishment of research project
c). Uniform publishing record
d). Obtaining independent funds
e). Successful teaching and research program for studentsIf candidate is successful in meeting the criteria, offer them the permanent position or else give an option to leave or switch to teaching.
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Anonymous
4 candidates from the same field !! hope they are not from the same lab pushed by their god father.
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