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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Faculty Affairs Office

Critical References List

Faculty are expected to advance their fields, with their work having an impact beyond Northwestern's campus. Through the Critical References Form, applicants may identify up to five references since their last promotion in rank (or appointment) that represent their most significant contributions and explain the impact and consequences of each. Authorship order is not a perfect indicator of authors' contributions to publications, so if you are a middle author on a high-impact paper for which you played a critical role, this form also provides an opportunity to highlight your contribution. This form is required for all career tracks, with the caveat that among Health System Clinicians, it is only required for those who have selected research as their area of concentration.

  • Include only references published since your last promotion became effective (or since you were appointed, if you now hold your first faculty rank)
  • Save your file using this file naming convention: LastName Critical References (e.g., Simpson Critical References)

There are two options for creating this document:

  1. Critical References List: You may create this document manually by using this form.
  2. Feinberg Faculty Portal: You have the option of generating this document from within the Feinberg Faculty Portal. (The system is relatively new and many faculty have not yet added their full career history, so you are not required to use this option).

    To select the FIVE critical references that you wish to highlight:

    1. Go to the Activities page within the Feinberg Faculty Portal (left navigation menu).
    2. Open the section called Publications and Scholarly Works.
    3. For each item you want to highlight as a critical reference, select the edit (pencil) icon and in the form that opens, scroll down to the section called Activity Classifications. 
    4. Look for the field called Critical References and set it to Yes (this causes the record to appear on your Critical References Form).
    5. Complete the Role field and the Impact and Consequences field; these fields also display on your Critical References List.
    6. Repeat these steps for each reference up to FIVE that you wish to include on the Critical References List.
    7. Go to the Vitas & Biosketches page within the Feinberg Faculty Portal and run the CV template titled Critical References List.