Scholarly Works > CAST Scholarship Guidelines

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1. CAST Scholarship Defined
   CAST faculty embrace the RIT Scholarship Policy (January 9 2003) typology of scholarship and actively engage in the Scholarship of Discovery, the Scholarship of Integration, the Scholarship of Application, and the Scholarship of Teaching.
   1. Scholarship of Discovery. This leads to new understandings, knowledge and views. This involves activities that include investigation and/or problem-solving in a faculty member’s primary area or areas of expertise or multi-disciplinary areas that include the primary area.
   2. Scholarship of Integration. This brings and connects knowledge together from various sources. This involves activities that examine current knowledge and conditions from a range of sources and distill the results to create or enhance course materials and curricula, educational or presentation materials, web sites, books or other sources of information.
   3. Scholarship of Application. This involves faculty members using knowledge and skills from their primary area or areas of expertise to solve a problem or understand an area of interest. This is most commonly done to assist an organization, an individual or a group (consulting) but can include creative activities and projects.
   4. Scholarship of Teaching. This entails the study of teaching and pedagogical methods based on classroom observations and experimentation, assessment of teaching and learning, and developing strategies for improving student learning. This knowledge is transmitted to students in lectures and to peers in the academic community through presentations and publication.
   
   Scholarly activities in CAST may occur within or across traditional disciplinary boundaries. This broad scope of scholarly work is due to the multidisciplinary nature of the college, and its mission to create new curricula related to emerging fields and disciplines. Thus, faculty may choose to engage in scholarship consistent with their expertise but it would also be appropriate for the faculty to extend that expertise into multiple disciplines and to disseminate results to a wide variety of audiences.
    
2. Peer Review
   Scholarship in CAST requires review by external and/or internal peers. To support its multidisciplinary activities CAST embraces a broad definition of “peer review.” Peer groups include but are not limited to RIT faculty, members of industry associations, external faculty groups, professional associations, grant proposal review boards, industrial advisory boards, conference audiences, trade and periodical editorial reviewers, and expert panels.
    
3. Dissemination
   Scholarship in CAST requires dissemination to external and/or internal peers. Potential venues and means for dissemination include:
   1. Publication of articles, critiques, notes, and evaluations in peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, and popular periodicals, or at local, regional, national, and international conferences.  These materials should be related to the professional activities of the faculty member.
   2. Publication of articles, critiques, notes, and evaluations on peer reviewed websites, including internal (RIT) websites.
   3. Educational use or publication of case studies or articles on consulting work, describing non-proprietary information on the work carried out; basic problem addressed and proposed solutions.
   4. Invited presentation of non-refereed papers and reports to peers at professional or technical meetings.
   5. Demonstrated application of scholarship in the faculty member’s field or discipline; this could be documented in a technical, management or design report.
   6. Grant and contract applications submitted for scholarship, curriculum development, program evaluation, or undergraduate laboratory expansion.
   7. Creative or innovative work resulting in patents and licenses, computer software, designs, simulations, multimedia materials, the publication of a trade- or text- book, manuscript, chapters in edited volumes, or laboratory manual in the related field or discipline.
   8. Incorporation of the results of the scholarly activity into peer reviewed courses and/or programs.
   9. Development of new courses and new lab experiments, curriculum revision, and dissemination of this information to internal and external audiences of peers.
   10. Presentations in departmental, college, and university symposia or colloquia.
        
4. Levels of Scholarship
   While all CAST faculty are expected to have some scholarship component in their annual plan of work, the specific expected level of scholarship is established in the annual plan of work and is jointly determined by the faculty member and department administration.  Determining the expected level of scholarship should give consideration to the faculty member’s teaching and service workload.
    
   
5. Documentation
   Evidence of a faculty member’s scholarly work is documented in a portfolio and available for review as part of the annual review and plan of work process. Appropriate documentation includes but is not limited to the following: copies of papers, grant proposals submitted and received, reports, presentations, articles, manuals, abstracts, letters of invitation, letters of acceptance from publishers and editorial boards, client letters, website URLs, and software user documentation.