  Tenure provides a permanent position to faculty in higher education
institutions. In North America, it is granted to those who have established a
record of excellence in research, teaching and services in a limited period.
However, in China, research excellence represented by the number of Web of
Science publications is highly weighted in the tenure assessment compared to
excellence in teaching and services, but this has never been systematically
investigated. By analyzing the tenure assessment documents from Chinese
universities, this study reveals the role of Web of Science publications in
China tenure system and presents the landscape of the tenure assessment process
in Chinese higher education institutions.
