Confession: My Little Anxious Questions
When one enters the hallowed halls of academia, one devotes oneself fully to the big questions about life, love, and the nature of the universe. That’s what I truly thought […]
academia
“More Research is Needed”
“More research is needed.” How often have you read that phrase? It is the final sentiment of an overwhelming proportion of journal articles, and is repeated so often at academic […]
How Your Citation Choices Can Change World Knowledge Forever
When I’ve had a bad day, I sometimes watch cute YouTube videos. Nothing melts away stress like watching a toddler adorably mouth the words to a heavy metal song, or […]
Academic Integrity: Principles and Practice
According to a systematic review of survey data, almost 2% of scientists have admitted fabricating, falsifying or modifying data at least once (Fanelli, 2009). It is not surprising, therefore, that […]
A Storm is Brewing in the Academic Publishing World
As postgraduate researchers, we’re all too familiar with peer-reviewed journal articles. We read ’em. We cite ’em. In the latter stages of our research, we sometimes write ’em. And we […]
Your Mega Academic Acronyms Glossary: Save this Page!
Universities are enormous institutions. Academia as a whole is mammoth. Like any large group of people, academics have invented thousands of confusing, overlapping, and rarely explained acronyms. For those entering […]
My Education Is More Than My Thesis
My thesis will be bound in navy blue. It’s not finished yet, but I’ve already decided. Navy blue cover, elegant silver lettering, my name in full on the front. The […]
5 Things You May Not Know About Academic Careers
It’s that time of year… research projects are winding up, courses are coming to an end, and many of us are thinking forward to our next steps. If you’ve had […]
Making (Pretend) Friends with Scholars
Have you ever noticed how impersonal the process of citing another scholar is? Surname. Initials. Year of publication. It’s as if the ideas and findings you are citing just appeared […]
Diversity Week: What is diversity in academia?
When a company references their “diversity plan,” they’re often talking about a plan to meet an ethnicity or gender quota among their staff or in their boardrooms. But diversity in […]
Double Duty Mantras
I noticed something recently. A lot of academic wisdom can have multiple meanings. Things that we are told to do in our research can apply to surviving our research as […]
The Weird World of Academic Listservs (and Why You Should Join One Now)
Did you know that the internet was created by academics? It was designed for use at universities, so that scholars all over the world could share information. Of course back […]