The PhD Picnic Guidelines, Rewritten
A different take on advice frequently given to PhD students.
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Faculty Service Loads and Gender: Are Women Taking Care of the Academic Family?
A New Paradigm for the Scientific Enterprise: Nurturing the Ecosystem
Six Principles for Assessing Scientists for Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure
With Generous Funding and Top-Tier Jobs, China Seeks to Lure Science Talent from Abroad
I Struggle to Hire Academics, Because Candidates Are Too Good
I’m deluged with outstanding applications for academic posts. So should I recruit the people who need the job most?
Preliminary Findings from the Review, Promotion, and Tenure Study
Only about 5% of the institutions made explicit mention of open access in their guidelines, and, in several of those few cases, the mention was done to call attention to the potentially problematic nature of these journals.
Effectiveness of Anonymization in Double-Blind Review
In a controlled experiment with two disjoint program committees, the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM'17) found that reviewers with author information were 1.76x more likely to recommend acceptance of papers from famous authors, and 1.67x more likely to recommend acceptance of papers from top institutions.
Scientists Get More Bang for Their Buck If Given More Freedom
Scientists are more efficient at producing high-quality research when they have more academic freedom, according to a recent study of 18 economically advanced countries. Researchers in the Netherlands are the most efficient of all. The existence of a national evaluation system that is not tied to funding was also associated with efficiency.
The Price of Open Science
When it’s also big science, the careers of those involved can suffer.
Improving Support for Young Biomedical Scientists
Three steps that could be taken by funding agencies to support young investigators in more constructive and effective ways: (1) greatly expand the use of the New Innovator/Starting Grants awards, (2) increase the funding of young investigators through requests for applications, and (3) experiment with separate competitions for Early Stage Investigators when awarding traditional investigator-initiated R01 grants.
The Unhappy Postdoc: a Survey Based Study
In this study, among a large number of factors that can enhance life satisfaction for postdocs (e.g., publication productivity, resources available to them) only one stood out as significant: the degree to which atmosphere in the lab is pleasant and collegial.
I’d Whisper to My Student Self: You Are Not Alone
Twenty years on, Dave Reay speaks out about the depression that almost sunk his Ph.D., and the lifelines that saved him.
The Big Push: Are PhDs Too Tough?
Study suggests doctorates are now seen as a test of character rather than intellect.
Considering the 'Leaky Pipeline'- Are We Missing the Point on Leadership Diversity?
The 2018 Global Survey of Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Scientists Now Open!
The 2018 Global Survey of Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Scientists Now Open!
A crucial component of the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences project is the compilation of self-reported data from scientists via a global, multilingual, and multidisciplinary survey.
Feeling Overwhelmed by Academia? You Are Not Alone
Five researchers share their stories and advice on how to maintain good mental health in the hyper-competitive environment of science.
Scientists' Early Grant Success Fuels Further Funding
A new paper suggests that positive feedback in funding may be a key mechanism through which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few extremely successful scholars, but also that the origins of emergent distinction in scientists' careers may be of an arbitrary nature.
The Matthew Effect in Science Funding
Article suggesting that positive feedback in funding may be a key mechanism through which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few extremely successful scholars, but also that the origins of emergent distinction in scientists' careers may be of an arbitrary nature. (The article is closed access and requires a subscription to view the full text legally.)
PhD Students Supervised Collectively Rather Than Individually Are Quicker to Complete Their Theses
PhD Students Supervised Collectively Rather Than Individually Are Quicker to Complete Their Theses
Comparing the experiences of individually and collectively supervised students on the same doctoral programme, it was found that collective supervision, during the first year at least, is correlated with significantly shorter times to thesis completion compared to individual supervision.
Panel Calls for a Postdoc Tax and Other Measures to Help Biomedical Scientists Find Jobs
Panel Calls for a Postdoc Tax and Other Measures to Help Biomedical Scientists Find Jobs
By limiting how long postdocs can be federally funded and by making it more expensive to keep them designated as trainees, research institutions will have an incentive to employ more permanent staff scientists, providing a much-needed additional career option for young scientist.
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