Criteria for Arm's-Length and/or Fresh Status of External Referees

Qualifications and criteria for arm's-length and fresh statuses of external referees.

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Qualifications

  • In general, to qualify as arm's-length, a referee must not have been the candidate's teacher, mentor, advisor, or collaborator, and must not have a close personal relationship with the candidate.
  • In general, to qualify as fresh, a referee must not have written a letter for the candidate for a prior appointment or promotion at Yale.

Criteria

In general, persons with the following relationships would not have arm's-length status:

  1. Co-author of an article, book chapter, or book*
  2. Co-presenter of a conference paper or poster
  3. Co-editor of a book
  4. Advisor/PI or dissertation committee member (in either direction)
  5. Instructor, co-instructor, student
  6. Chair of a department where the candidate was appointed as junior faculty or promoted (because a mentoring relationship would be assumed)
  7. Co-PI or grant research collaborator (being paid from the same grant/working on the same project)
  8. Close personal relationship

In general, the following relationships would not on their own disqualify someone from having arm's length status:

  1. Editor of a book in which the candidate has published a chapter
  2. Co-member of an editorial board or a professional society committee
  3. Peer reviewer of the candidate's book manuscript, journal article, or grant
  4. Participant in the candidate's book/manuscript colloquium
  5. Co-participant in a conference panel
  6. Reviewer of the candidate's work ( or vice versa) or author of a blurb for the candidate's book
  7. The candidate's teacher in a short seminar/workshop (not for credit)

In the event that a candidate has co-authored a publication with a large number of co-authors, this large collaboration may be considered arm's length at the discretion of the divisional dean, in consultation with colleagues in the FAS Dean's Office.

For initial appointments/promotions to tenure only: In rare cases, there will be an acute trade-off between the requirement that referees be arm's-length and the need for referees who are among the foremost experts in the relevant areas. In these cases, the divisional dean, in consultation with colleagues in the FAS Dean's Office, may adopt a modified interpretation of arm's-length and/or grant that up to 4 letters may be nonfresh.

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