New demands for research productivity, shrinking humanities lists by academic publishers and fears about limited opportunities for junior scholars are among the factors that prompted a landmark study released today by the Modern Language Association of America.

In 2004, the MLA’s executive council created a task force to examine current standards and emerging trends in publication requirements for tenure and promotion in English and foreign language departments in the United States. The council’s action came in response to factors including worries that forms of scholarship other than single-authored books were not being properly recognized, and concerns that a generation of junior scholars would have a significantly reduced chance of being tenured. The task force was charged with investigating the factual basis behind the concerns and making recommendations to address the changing environment, in which scholarship is being evaluated in tenure and promotion decisions.

The MLA survey showed that well over 20 percent of tenure-track faculty members leave the departments that originally hired them before they come up for tenure. Data from studies conducted by other groups found that fewer than 40 percent of the doctoral recipients who make up the pool of applicants for tenure-track positions obtain them and go through the tenure process at the institutions where they are initially hired. A somewhat larger number of modern language doctorate recipients — more than 40 percent — never obtain tenure-track appointments. Doctoral-degree holders in the fields represented by the MLA have about a 35 percent chance of getting tenure.

“There is a need for greater transparency,” says Domna C. Staton, chair of the Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion. “We’re responding to the junior scholars who tell us that they are not clear about tenure expectations. It’s time for greater transparency to occur throughout the process. We want them to know what’s expected of them from the outset.”