Academic tenure in the context of "Just cause (employment law)"

The following summarizes basic academic ranks in the French higher education system. Most academic institutions are state-run and most academics with permanent positions are civil servants, and thus are tenured (after a one-year probationary period).

Several parallel career paths exist, depending on the type of institution. The three paths correspond to teacher-researchers (enseignants-chercheurs), researchers, and teachers. It is possible to be promoted from one path to another. Several ranks exist within each path. Increases in rank (for example, the promotion from associate professor to full professor) come with an increase in salary and responsibility and are subject to some conditions, such as the habilitation. In most cases, moving to a higher rank requires going through an open recruitment competition, the same procedure used for initially obtaining the position in the lower rank.

A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academic appointment during which time they are expected to professionalize by publishing papers and completing research, typically in preparation for a more permanent academic faculty position. According to data from the US National Science Foundation, the number of holders of PhD in biological sciences who end up in tenure track has consistently dropped from over 50% in 1973 to less than 20% in 2006. They continue their studies or carry out research and further increase expertise in a specialist subject, including integrating a team and acquiring novel skills and research methods. Postdoctoral research is often considered essential while advancing the scholarly mission of the host institution; it is expected to produce relevant publications in peer-reviewed academic journals or conferences. In some countries, postdoctoral research may lead to further formal qualifications or certification, while in other countries, it does not.

Postdoctoral research may be funded through an appointment with a salary or an appointment with a stipend or sponsorship award. Appointments for such a research position may be called postdoctoral research fellow, postdoctoral research associate, or postdoctoral research assistant. Postdoctoral researchers typically work under the supervision of a principal investigator. In many English-speaking countries, postdoctoral researchers are colloquially referred to as "postdocs".

Distinguished professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in American universities, schools, or departments. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs.

Often specific to one institution, titles such as "president's professor", "university professor", "distinguished professor", "distinguished research professor", "distinguished teaching professor", "distinguished university professor", or "regents professor" are granted to a small percentage of the top tenured faculty who are regarded as particularly important in their respective fields of research. Some institutions grant more university-specific, formal titles such as M.I.T.'s "Institute Professor", Yale University's "Sterling Professor", or Duke University's "James B. Duke Professor".

Citation impact or citation rate is a measure of how many times an academic journal article or book or author is cited by other articles, books or authors.Citation counts are interpreted as measures of the impact or influence of academic work and have given rise to the field of bibliometrics or scientometrics, specializing in the study of patterns of academic impact through citation analysis. The importance of journals can be measured by the average citation rate,the ratio of number of citations to number articles published within a given time period and in a given index, such as the journal impact factor or the citescore. It is used by academic institutions in decisions about academic tenure, promotion and hiring, and hence also used by authors in deciding which journal to publish in. Citation-like measures are also used in other fields that do ranking, such as Google's PageRank algorithm, software metrics, college and university rankings, and business performance indicators.

Permanent employment is work for an employer for which the employee receives payment directly from that employer. Permanent employees do not have a predetermined end date to employment. In addition to their wages, they often receive benefits like subsidized health care, paid vacations, holidays, sick time, or contributions. Permanent employees are often eligible to switch job positions within their companies. Even when employment is "at will", permanent employees of large companies are generally protected from abrupt job termination by severance policies, like advance notice in case of layoffs, or formal discipline procedures. They may be eligible to join a union, and may enjoy both social and financial benefits of their employment.

With exception of South Korea, France, Germany, Italy, India, and Japan, where extensive laws and regulations make firing of permanent employees nearly impossible, rarely does "permanent employment" mean employment of an individual that is guaranteed throughout the employee's working life. In the private sector, with the notable exception of academic tenure, such jobs are rare; permanent employment is far more common in the public sector, where it is often used to strengthen civil service independence from politicians.Permanent employment is often considered the gold standard for employee life quality and society development as it gives stability and peace of mind to citizens. It has been seen that permanent employment gives better results for social development in the long term because of various reasons such as steady circulation of liquid wealth through wages, peaceful society, regular upskilling by companies etc.