Faculty mentoring of students to produce papers for peer-reviewed journals will be increased.

Measure student competence through written work by tracking the number of Ph.D. students who submit papers to peer-review journals. Students will be able to develop a quality literature review, theoretical and methodological research design, appropriate statistical models, and a significant contribution to the literature.

Part of professional life is submitting papers for publication to peer-reviewed journals. A way to track student learning outcomes is to assess how successful students are at completing papers and submitting them to peer reviewed journals. Submitting a completed paper indicates that students have learned all the essential components of professional research, including developing a focused and comprehensive literature review and a methodological structure. The process of submitting academic manuscripts shows student competence and learning within criminal justice and criminology.

100% of students submit papers to professional journals.

20% of Ph.D. students within the College of Criminal Justice submitted papers to peer-reviewed journals.

There is a need for more faculty mentoring in student research endeavors. Faculty need to take more of a one-on-one mentoring role with students in their classrooms, developing their course papers into publishable manuscripts. Faculty need to help students pick topics or approve student topics that are publishable, improving the students' chances of getting papers submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Prior research has shown that students who have the best faculty mentoring turn out to be the most productive faculty members themselves. Faculty seminars and workshops will be developed to assist faculty members in assuming a greater mentoring role with doctoral students.

Faculty mentoring of students to produced peer reviewed articles to be accepted will be increased

Measure student competence through written work by tracking the number of Ph.D. students who have had papers accepted within peer-review journals. Published students show competence and learning by developing a quality literature review, a through theoretical and methodological research design, appropriate statistical models, and ultimately getting the paper accepted in a peer-reviewed journal.

One of the biggest parts of academic life is publishing. Tenure-track faculty appointments in universities depend on a faculty member's publication record. A way to track student learning outcomes is to assess how successful students are at getting their papers published in peer-reviewed journals before they go on the job market for a tenure-track faculty position. Getting papers published shows student competence and learning outcomes within criminal justice and criminology.

100% of students publish papers in peer-reviewed journals.

16% of Ph.D. students within the College of Criminal Justice accepted papers to peer- reviewed journals.

There is a need for more faculty involvement in the student publishing enterprise. Before a student submits a paper to an academic journal for publication consideration, faculty members need to be involved in helping to prepare the paper for publication. Before submission, faculty need to help the student prepare the paper in the proper format that is acceptable for the journal. If the paper is accepted, the faculty member should sheppard the student through the pre-publication process (copyright forms, galley proofs, etc.). If the student gets a revise and resubmit on their paper, faculty members should help students carefully review the reviewers' comments, address them in a revised paper, and help the student write a letter to the editor and the reviewers explaining how the revised paper was changed. Prior research has shown that students who have the best faculty mentoring while in their Ph.D. program turn out to be the most productive faculty members themselves with respect to publications. Workshops and seminars will be developed to assist faculty members as they assume greater involvement in mentoring doctoral students.

Research Assessment Portfolio was adopted as a qualifying examination

Candidates for a Ph.D. must demonstrate competence to proceed to a dissertation. Approval to proceed to a dissertation is formally termed "Admission to Candidacy." After successful completion of stipulated coursework, two publishable manuscripts is considered prima facie evidence of the student's readiness to proceed to the dissertation. Assistance is provided throughout the process, including submission of manuscripts to prestigious journals. Our objective is to have all of our doctoral graduates already "published" before they write their dissertation.

All students admitted after Fall 2008, after finishing their required coursework, will complete a Research Assessment Portfolio instead of taking a written comprehensive examination. The essence of academic life is publishing. Tenure-track faculty appointments in many universities depend on a faculty member's publication record. A way to track student learning outcomes is to assess how successful students are at getting their papers published in peer-reviewed journals before they enter the job market. Getting papers published shows student competence and learning outcomes within criminal justice and criminology. This entails a sophisticated understanding of the research literature in an area of study, including focus on the important theoretical and research questions, their ability to critically evaluate and integrate knowledge across the significant domains of interest within their specified areas of concentration, and their proficiency as writers.

100% of Ph.D. students in the College of Criminal Justice pass their portfolio.

100% (n=2) of Ph.D. students within the College of Criminal Justice passed their public defense of their portfolio.

Since the Portfolio process is in its infancy in the College of Criminal Justice, there is a need for a cultural shift to occur, which will involve more faculty members participating in the student publishing enterprise. Passing the research Portfolio shows student learning because publication of journal articles are the sine qua non of academic life. The Portfolio specifically focuses on publishing, and students are going to need more faculty mentoring and assistance to learn how the publication process works in academia. Before a student submits a paper to an academic journal, faculty members need to be involved in helping to prepare the paper for publication. Before submission, faculty need to help the student prepare the paper in the proper format that is acceptable for the journal. If the paper is accepted, the faculty member should sheppard the student through the pre-publication process (copyright forms, galley proofs, etc.). If the student gets a revise and resubmit on their paper, faculty members should help students carefully review the reviewers' comments, address them in the paper, and write a letter to the editor and the reviewers explaining how the paper was changed. Prior research has shown that students who have the best faculty mentoring while in their Ph.D. program turn out to be the most productive faculty members themselves. By passing the research Portfolio, student learning outcomes are achieved. Workshops and seminars will be developed to assist faculty members assume a greater involvement in mentoring doctoral students in their portfolio process.