Academic Promotion at a Medical School

To the Editor: There is a serious flaw in the analysis by Batshaw et al. (March 24 issue)* of the factors required for academic promotion. A category of papers published with the assistant professor as first author is inappropriately included in the analysis in place of a category of papers on which the candidate was the senior author, whether listed first or listed last, with a trainee in his or her laboratory as the first author. Including easily tabulated first authorships as a separate category is misleading, and excluding papers published with the candidate as “senior author,” which would have.