External Reviewer Information (Conflict of Interest) Form

The PTC Guidelines (2.4.5.1) require files for tenure and/or promotion to contain a minimum of five letters “from scholars who are not current or former collaborators, departmental colleagues, nor members of the candidate’s graduate department during the time he or she was a graduate student or recommended by the candidate.” The External Reviewer Information Form is designed to assist departments and those who review files (CAS, PTC) to determine whether the file meets this requirement. Departments are encouraged to ask reviewers to fill out and return this form as early in the process as possible, so that if the form indicates a conflict of interest, additional reviewers can be contacted to fulfill the PTC requirement.

Where the department believes that a reviewer’s response of ‘yes’ to a question on the External Reviewer Information Form does not indicate a true conflict of interest (for example, for disciplines in which papers may have large numbers of coauthors who have no personal contact), this should be addressed in the statement explaining the choice of external reviewers (see PTC Guidelines 2.4.5.1).