Achievement Section Overview

PERSONAL PROFILE

Contact Information

Contact information is what you might find at the top of a Curriculum Vitae (CV). There can be multiple records, including both permanent and temporary locations. You may or may not choose to include this information in your CV.

Relatives Employed by UC

It is important for the university to know of any near relatives (including domestic partners) who are presently employed at any campus of the University of California. APM 520-Employment of Near Relatives provides a list of the near relatives. This policy requires disclosure of such relationships, primarily as it affects the academic personnel appointment and review process. Similar policies exist for the employment of near relatives in staff positions and for student supervision.

In the Department/Institution field, include both the department or professional school, as well as the campus. You may add multiple records, as necessary. List both current and former relationships (as defined by the policy) in order to avoid conflicts in the review process.

Education

This section captures degrees earned or degrees in progress, as well as attendance at institutions, e.g. Junior Year Abroad.

Employment History

This captures all employment that would normally appear on a CV.

TEACHING

Courses Taught

This section is a summary of all courses taught by a faculty member. Ten years of data from the campus Class Schedule and Instructional Record (CSIR) system, which is the system of record for all data concerning teaching activity, will be imported on a regular basis to complete certain fields in APBears. This will eliminate data entry effort on the part of faculty and departmental staff and will provide the complete record of formal course instruction. As this is the official record of course instruction, the official CSIR data cannot be modified or corrected. If there is an issue on how course data is reported in your department, it can only be addressed going forward.

It will be the responsibility of faculty to validate the data and to provide any information as it may relate to the course, i.e. development of a new course or new use of technology in the course. Departmental staff normally will have responsibility for entering data related to course evaluations, including course scores and departmental averages. Cross-listed courses will be displayed in a single record; the enrollment figure is a sum of all the courses. Independent study courses will be displayed only once, with the enrollment summed.

Student evaluations should be collected for all courses, with average scores reported for both the course taught and the departmental average. In the interest of streamlining, campus reviewers no longer require certain documents, including summaries of student comments, sample evaluations, and actual evaluations for courses with less than 10 students. For more details, see the campus directive dated February 25, 2009.

Courses taught at other institutions, including workshops and seminars, should be added under Professional Activities.

How to Address Missing or Incorrect Data

APBears is correctly calculating CSIR data; however when we first launched APBears, we discovered some departments had used the course scheduling system in ways it was not intended (for example adding GSIs as instructors to the primary section to give them access to bSpace). Since this was the first time CSIR data was shown back to departments and faculty, the impact of this usage came to light. Because CSIR data cannot be edited or corrected, faculty with missing or incorrect teaching data have the following options within APBears:

  1. For incorrect % Taught, enter the correct % in the Actual % Taught field. This information will be displayed in the Candidate Summary instead of the % Taught imported from CSIR. Note, for records prior to January 2011, notes about incorrect or missing data will appear in the Comments field under the "Course Evaluation" section.
  2. For other comments about the data, use the General Comments field.
  3. For missing courses, summarize the teaching record as you would like it to be presented to campus reviewers and attach it as part of your Self Statement.
  4. To exclude courses from the Candidate Summary, edit the course record and de-select the "Include in Candidate Summary" option. This can be used to exclude any duplicate records that were imported from CSIR.

Campus reviewers at all levels are instructed to pay close attention to both the Comments field under the "Course Evaluation" section and Self Statements to verify the data provided from CSIR. They are also briefed on the limitations of the CSIR data and departments have been trained on how CSIR data interacts with APBears.

Please note that starting with cases effective July 1, 2021, all student narrartive comments submitted on course evaluations must be uploaded into APBears.

Sabbaticals, Leaves, and Releases

It is important for reviewers to understand why there is limited or no teaching in a particular semester or academic year. Data should be entered here if there has been a sabbatical leave, unpaid leave, or some form of teaching relief, i.e. for administrative service or teaching buyout for one or more semesters. The semester(s) of teaching release and reason(s) will be included in the teaching portion of the Candidate Summary with an appropriate annotation of the reason.

If the department operates a point system and there is no teaching due to an excess of points, select “Course Buyout.” For those with a Miller Professorship or who are an HHMI Faculty Investigator, select "Research Leave."

Undergraduate Student Mentoring

Mentoring of undergraduate students is an important part of the teaching record. This could include work in a research lab or supervision of an honors thesis. 

If the mentored student is receiving course credit for the activity, such as URAP, there is no need to enter a mentoring record. The course will be listed in the Courses Taught section. Multiple roles can be selected. If a student has a double major, both can be reflected in the Department/Program field or if you don't know the department, enter Unknown. Approximate dates are okay.

Graduate Student Mentoring

Graduate student mentoring and participation on oral examination committees are important components of the teaching record. Students who have completed their degrees or who are currently being advised/mentored at Berkeley and other institutions should be listed. Assigned advising of a group of students, i.e. graduate student advisor, should be listed under University Service. You may also wish to review our Guidelines for evaluating Graduate Student Mentoring in Faculty Reviews

Information regarding graduate student advising and service on committees is extracted from the Graduate Division database and fed directly into APBears on a daily basis. This data includes degrees completed and participation on oral exams. It will NOT include advising at other institutions, i.e. another UC campus or at the Graduate Theological Union.

To add a record, click on the link. Complete the required fields. Note that one might want to track graduate student mentoring that is ongoing and which may not yet be included in Graduate Division records. These records can be “Saved” or can be “Saved as Draft”.

Faculty are responsible for reviewing the data fed from Graduate Division and ensuring its accuracy and completeness. To review and/or edit a record on the “Existing Records” list, find the student name and click on the edit field.

Postdoctoral Mentoring

Mentoring of postdoctoral scholars is an important part of the teaching record. Current and former postdoctoral scholars should be listed.

Click “Add Postdoctoral Mentoring Record” to open the data input form. Complete the required fields. Approximate dates are okay. The dates will be used primarily for inclusion in a Candidate Summary.

DOCUMENTS FOR REVIEWS ONLY

Note: use the Effective Date for the case in which you want the document to appear when entering the date in Achievements (e.g. a publication list with a 7/1/2023 date will appear in a review effective 7/1/2023)

Curriculum Vitae

Self Statements

This is included in a review action. You are encouraged to submit a brief statement describing and evaluating, in language understandable to a general audience, your achievements and recognition. While these self statements are not required, they are helpful to internal and external reviewers if they direct the reviewers' attention to your most significant work and the current direction of scholarly activities. You should demonstrate the programmatic nature of the research, i.e. how it all fits together. Simple enumeration of material evident in the file (i.e. list of publications or graduate student supervision) does not contribute to the review process and should be avoided. Accuracy of the self statement is your responsibility. Self statements are normally 3-5 pages, but should be no longer than 10 pages.

If you believe that your teaching or service workload, either formal or informal, exceeded departmental norms for your career stage, you may provide relevant information in your self statement. 

If you choose to include a self statement in a review, enter the effective date of the personnel action, i.e. 7/2015. You can either enter the self statement in the text box or upload a single document as an attachment.

Please note if your department is using the Assistant Professor First Merit Checklist then a self statement is required. 

Diversity Statements

This is included in a review action. The University of California policy governing the appointment and advancement of its faculty (APM 210.1.d) states: “The University of California is committed to excellence and equity in every facet of its mission. Teaching, research, professional and public service contributions that promote diversity and equal opportunity are to be encouraged and given recognition in the evaluation of the candidate's qualifications. These contributions to diversity and equal opportunity can take a variety of forms including efforts to advance equitable access to education, public service that addresses the needs of California's diverse population, or research in a scholar's area of expertise that highlights inequalities.”

There is no presumption that all faculty will engage with this opportunity, nor are diversity statements required. If you are contributing in the above ways, it is very helpful to internal and external reviewers to direct their attention to contributions in teaching, research and service that promote the University’s commitment to serving the needs of our increasingly diverse state. As with the self-statement, the diversity statement is an opportunity to provide context and evidence of impact or effectiveness towards a fuller understanding of those contributions. Simple enumeration of material evident in the file (i.e. list of publications or graduate student supervision) does not by itself substantially advance the review process in this area.

Accuracy of the diversity statement is your responsibility. The length of diversity statements will depend on the extent and complexity of contributions but should be no longer than 10 pages.

If you choose to include a diversity statement in a review, enter the effective date of the personnel action, i.e. 7/2015. You can either enter the diversity statement in the text box or upload a single document as an attachment.

Non-Confidential Documents (optional)

In this section, you may upload documents to include in a specific personnel action. Such documents might include syllabi, book contracts, reviewers’ comments, etc. The documents will be included if the date of the document falls within the Review Period of the action.

Fairness Safeguard Statement (PDF)

This is a statement outlining your rights in the academic review process as defined by APM 220-80. You have the right to review documents included in a personnel case and to provide comments on case materials.

During the electronic routing of cases, you will be provided access to review materials and asked to certify such access. In the first instance, you will receive an email from the system asking you to review the materials which are to be included in your review. If everything is correct, by routing the case to the next level, you will be certifying that you have been provided your rights defined by policy.

In the second instance, at the end of the departmental review, you will be informed of the departmental recommendation and provided an opportunity to respond. By submitting the response, you are again certifying that you have been given your rights under policy.

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Research Interests

This is a list of key words describing research interests. This allows reviewers to quickly understand your key research interests. 

Add as many keywords as necessary to describe the research. If more space is needed, add another record. Research Interests can be changed at any time, and should reflect your current Research Interests. If there is a need to add, modify, or delete key words, simply use the edit function.

Examples:

  • chemical engineering, biochemical engineering, metabolic engineering of microorganisms, degradation of environmental contaminants, environmentally friendly synthesis, biodegradable polymers, mineralization of organophosphate nerve agents, pesticides
  • Descartes, Hume, 17th and 18th century philosophy
  • political science, American politics, California politics, legislative redistricting, campaign finance

Publications Lists

This is a complete Bibliography uploaded as a document for use in a review action. The list should be sorted by major categories, i.e. books, refereed articles, etc. as expected for a review. Publications completed during the current review period should be clearly marked.

PATENTS

This section captures data of all potentially patentable inventions or current patents. There are three primary stages in the pursuit of a patent:

  1. UC Disclosure of Invention.
    Under University policy, all potentially patentable inventions must be disclosed to the University. This is accomplished by submitting a Record of Invention Form. Upon receipt, the record of invention is assigned a UC Case Number. Technically, this constitutes a filing within the UC system, but is often referred to as "Patent Disclosure."
  2. Patent Application Filing with US Patent & Trademark Office
    If it is decided to proceed with filing a patent application, the completed patent application is submitted in the inventor's name to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The official status at this stage is "Patent Pending."
  3. Issuance of Patent by US Patent and Trademark Office
    Once a patent is issued, it is given a public patent number.

As a patent changes status, i.e.. from Disclosure to Application, to Issuance, use the edit function for the particular record. Dates, as well as, UC case number and Patent number are available from the Office of Technology Licensing. Contributors should be added in the order in which you would like them to be displayed in your Candidate Summary and/or on your CV.

Grants

All grant and funding activity for the review period should be listed. This includes current and expired grants as well as pending proposals. 

Information regarding campus-sponsored contracts and grants is extracted from the Sponsored Projects Office's COEUS database and fed directly into APBears on a daily basis. This data includes the following eight fields: Status (Active, Expired, Pending, Not Funded), Sponsor Award ID, Granting Agency, Description/Title, Role (PI, Co-PI, Senior Personnel, Collaborator, Other), Project Start Date, Project End Date, and Total Award. All fields, except Sponsor Award ID, may be edited. Once a record is edited, you have the option to revert the seven editable fields back to the current COEUS values for those fields. To do so, click on Menu under the Actions column, and then Revert. Pending proposals should be edited and have dates added in order to be captured in the Review Summary (use the same date for the Project Start and End Dates). If you wish to show any Not Funded grants in your Review Summary, these will need dates added as well.

If you wish to add additional Investigators on a project, they can be added in manually. To do so, click on "Add Investigators" and then complete the fields as desired (there are no required fields). However, this information is not required for academic reviews. 

If you have a grant that is not administered by Sponsored Projects, you may add it manually. To add a grant, click on "Add New Record" in the upper righthand corner to open the data input form. Complete the fields.   

Every record will be marked as "Added" if you manually created the record, "SPO" if the record is maintained by SPO, and "SPO*" if you've edited a data field tracked by SPO. Unless a grant is not administered by SPO, all SPO imported records will be considered original and cannot be deleted. To exclude a SPO grant from your review summary, click "No" next to "Include in RS." 

Only grants that have been manually added can be deleted. To delete an added record, click on the Menu link to the left of the grant record and select "delete."

Please contact RAC Information Systems Support (phoebe-help@lists.berkeley.edu) if you see any SPO data needing correction.

Gifts

This section captures data regarding gifts you have received to support research or teaching activities.

Creative Activities

This section captures data regarding creative activities. It would normally be used in the fine arts, but can also be used to capture projects or non-traditional activities, such as web design.

Depending on the category and stage of activity you select, some fields may change. You can upload an attachment of the creative work by browsing and attaching the file—any format is acceptable. Alternatively, you can enter a URL to link to a website which has more detailed information about the activity. Access to the URL must be available to reviewers, e.g. accessible from the Berkeley domain.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE

Memberships

This section captures data regarding membership and leadership roles in organizations related to the scholarly profession.

Honors and Awards

This section captures data for honors and awards, which might include endowed chairs, honorary degrees, or election to a National Academy.

Use the drop-down box for selected awards tracked by the campus. Most honors and awards bestowed on Berkeley faculty are not on this limited list due to space constraints. If your award is not listed, select Other and enter the name of the award in the box. Please note that selecting Other does not make the award or honor less important.

Professional Activities

This section captures data of significant activities related to the profession, including presentations/lectures, editorial boards, reviewer activities, or practice of a profession on a part-time basis. Activities may be invited, i.e. giving a keynote address or providing expert witness testimony, and should be clearly identified as such in the Activity Description box. Where appropriate, you may wish to include invited activities which you declined or which you were unable to attend and note them as such. Teaching performed at other institutions can be included in the Presentations category.

The following categories and sub-categories, while not required, are available to help organize your activities on the Review Summary into sections:

  • Reviewer Activities
    • Journal Manuscripts
    • Grant Proposals
    • Grant Panels
    • Book Manuscripts
    • Chapters
    • Reports
  • Editorial Boards
  • Professional Committee Service
  • Presentations/Lectures
  • Conference Organizing
  • Consulting
  • Workshops
  • Meetings Attended
  • Web Development
  • Educational Materials
  • Other

If appropriate, you may use the Website field to paste a link relevant to a particular activity (e.g. a conference website for something you organized). Publications resulting from these activities should not be included in this section. Information should be listed only once, including the beginning and ending year(s) of participation, rather than repeating an activity. For ongoing activities, check the "To present?" box.

If you are entering several activities in the same category, Click "Save and Add Another" to save the first activity and bring up another data input form with the same category pre-selected. Click "Save" after entering the last activity of that type.

University Service

This section captures data about service to the University at all levels of the organization, including department, college, campus, Senate, and system-wide service.

List department, college, Senate, administrative and system-wide service under separate categories. Campus ad hoc committee service (without revealing the name of the candidate) should be listed under Senate service. Each instance of service should be listed only once with a begin and end date. If the service is renewed annually, merely change the end date of the service. If the service is intended to be ongoing and may span multiple years and/or review periods, check the “to present” box. If the service ended during the review period, enter an end date.

In the Activity Description box, briefly describe your service by stating the name of the committee, service, or activity and providing any comments you feel would be beneficial to reviewers (e.g. Graduate Admissions Committtee, reviewed 200 applications and participated in two-day recruitment visit of top 20 candidates).

Service which promotes diversity and equal opportunity on the campus or within the University may be so noted. APM 210-1.d. outlines how such activities are to be used in the academic review process.

Public Service

This section captures data about public service, such as work for the community, state and nation, reflecting your special capacity as a teacher or scholar.

Information should be listed only once. If the service is renewed annually, merely change the end date of the service. If the service is intended to be ongoing and may span multiple years and/or review periods, check the “to present” box. If the service has ended during the review period, enter an end date.

Service which promotes diversity and equal opportunity for public entities may be noted in the comments box. APM 210-1.d. outlines how such activities are to be used in the academic review process.