David Parkes talk Monday, 4pm

David Parkes will be giving a talk on computational mechanism design in Maxwell-Dworkin G115 at 4pm on the 19th. This is what at Harvard we call the "tenure talk" -- it's a talk he gives giving an overview of his research and research area as he's coming up for tenure. If you're a theorist in the area and want to hear a perhaps slightly different point of view on mechanism design and work at the intersection of economics/cs (David proves things, but he comes from the AI side), you should come. Heck, if you're local, in any area, and interested in the economics/cs interface you should come. It should be a very nice talk, and it would be great to have the room full to bursting as a sign of support of David.

What Do Professors Do?

A number of times I've had undergraduates ask me, essentially, "What else do you do?", which sometimes is an honest interest in what else my job entails and sometimes appears to be a concern that when I'm not teaching them, I'm just sitting around my office thinking up new ways to torture them via problem sets or soaking up tuition money.

At a high level, I know what else I do: research, write papers, give talks, go to conferences, manage and work with graduate students, advise undergraduates, seek funding, sit on department and university and theory-community committees, review papers and grant proposals, act as editor for a few journals, serve on program committees, write letters of recommendation, deal with standard administrative paperwork, and... well, I'm sure there are a few other things as well that I've forgotten. Let's count blogging as part of my job, too. And I consult on the side. Come to think of it, it's a wonder I have time to teach. (That probably explains the students' question. They're wondering if I have 40 working hours a week, why isn't this class better?) Of course, I'm know I'm not unusual; all this seems like standard faculty stuff.

What I've been realizing lately I don't have a good handle on is how much time I spend on these various activities. It has seemed to me that in the last few years -- since getting tenure -- a lot more of my time is going to administrative duties than to research-style activities. If true, that fact along with my poor time-management skills seems like a recipe for disaster. So this semester, I'm going to try a little experiment, and try to track my time in a spreadsheet somewhere, to start getting a better handle on what's going on. And figure out what activities to cut.

Of course, I'm curious -- what are others experiencing? How much time do you think you spend on various activities, and is there a pre-post tenure change? What's the biggest impediment to research time?

Citation Counts for Tenure

The discussion on citation counts reminded me of the related question of how much of a role this sort of data should play in tenure decisions.

In the world of extremes, one could imagine tenure decisions being based solely on letters without really looking at citation data. A motivation for this approach would be that letters give you a richer picture of how a person is viewed by their peers in the research community, what their work has been about, and what the potential impact of this work will be in the future. On the other hand, the system can be gamed, by making sure positively inclined people get chosen to write letters. (The person up for tenure might not exactly be able to game the system themselves, but certainly a friendly department chair could...) I have to admit, the letter-based approach feels rather "old-boy network" to me, which leaves me a bit uncomfortable.

As another extreme, one could imagine tenure decisions being based solely on numerical data gathered from Google scholar or other sources. A motivation for this approach would be that the numbers supposedly give you an unbiased picture of the impact of a researcher's work, allowing comparisons with other comparable researchers. The data could also be used to gauge the derivative -- how one's work is changing and growing in impact over time. On the other hand, the system can be gamed, by developing groups who purposefully cite each other whenever possible or by working on projects that give better numbers without really giving high impact. I have to admit, I like the numbers, and in some respects I trust them more than letters, but I still don't entirely trust them, either.

My limited experience with promotion decisions is that it makes sense to gather both types of data and make sure they are consistent. When they are not consistent, then the departmental arguments can begin. When asked to write letters, I know I look at the citation data, and would include it in the letter if I felt it was appropriate.