Table 2

List of variables and description

Variable	Variable	Definition	Type
Dependent variable	Approval	Promotion outcome	Binary (promoted/ not promoted)
Independent variables
Candidate related	Clinical programme	Candidate department or specialty.	Categorical
	Title	Academic title candidate is promoted to, that is, associate professor, professor clinical associate professor, clinical professor.	Categorical
	Level	Additional variable assigned by authors for grouping of academic titles into four levels by title.	Categorical
	UNI title	Candidate concurrently holds an academic title with a local competitor medical school.	Binary (yes/no)
	Other UNI title	Candidate concurrently holds an academic title with other universities or AMCs.	Binary (yes/no)
	Additional qualifications	Candidate has an advanced degree in addition to a medical degree (eg, Master’s of Science in Medical Education, Master’s of Business Administration and Ph.D.).	Binary (yes/no)
Research	Publications	Candidate’s number of publications in peer-reviewed journals.	Numeric
	Regional international	Candidate’s number of publications in regional or international peer-reviewed journals.	Numeric
	First last author	Candidate’s number of publications in which he/she is first or senior author.	Numeric
	H-index	H-index of candidate from Google Scholar Citations at the time of promotion review.	Numeric
	FWCI	Field-weighted Citation Impact from SciVAL Copyright 2022 Elsevier at time of promotion review.	Numeric
	Book chapters	Candidate’s number of book chapters authored.	Numeric
	Total grants	Sum of grants held by candidate.	Numeric
	Total grants as PI	Sum of grants where candidate is PI.	Numeric
Education	Teaching excellence	Candidate had provided a well-developed education portfolio to demonstrate educational excellence. The portfolio is included for promotion review only when cleared by the academic education institute of the AMC for completeness and effectiveness.	Binary (yes/no)
	International and/or regional teaching	If candidate has conducted international and/or regional teaching.	Binary (yes/no)
	National teaching	If candidate has conducted national level teaching.	Binary (yes/no)
	Undergraduate teaching	If candidate has conducted undergraduate level teaching.	Binary (yes/no)
	Postgraduate teaching	If candidate has conducted postgraduate level teaching.	Binary (yes/no)
Service/leadership	Leadership (AMC)	Candidate holds leadership role within the AMC. These roles may be clinical that is, clerkship coordinator or academic, that is, academic chair or vice chair.	Binary (yes/no)
Service/leadership	Other leadership	Candidate holds leadership or significant roles outside of AMC. These roles include residency programme director, member of national specialist accreditation committee and associate editor of local/international peer-reviewed journal.	Binary (yes/no)

AMC, academic medical centre; PI, principal investigator.