Anatomy of the Research Statement (opinion)

"The research statement that you include in your promotion and tenure dossier is one of the most important documents of your scholarly career-and one you'll have little experience writing or even reading, unless you have a generous network of senior colleagues. As an academic editor, I support a half dozen or so academics each year as they revise (and re-revise, and throw out, and retrieve from the bin, and re-revise again) and submit their research statements and P&T dossiers."

"When I think about "impact," I think of course of the conventional metrics, but I think as well of your work's influence among your peers in academia, and also of its resonance in nonacademic communities, be they communities of clinicians, patients, people with lived experiences of illness or oppression, people from a specific equity-deserving group, or literal neighborhoods that can be outlined on a map."

"When I edit research statements, I support faculty to shift their language from "I study X" to "My study of X has achieved Y" or "My work on X has accomplished Z." This shift depends on providing evidence to show how your work has changed other people's lives, work or thinking."

Recommendations target tenure-track researchers at American R-1s and R-2s and equivalent Canadian and Australian institutions. Emphasize demonstrating research impact rather than merely describing activities. Include conventional metrics alongside evidence of scholarly influence and resonance in nonacademic communities such as clinicians, patients, equity-deserving groups, and neighborhoods. Shift language from "I study X" toward statements that claim specific accomplishments and provide concrete evidence of changed lives, work, or thinking. Document incremental influence for long-term goals, articulate a clear future trajectory, and present persuasive, evidence-based claims of impact for reviewers.

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