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Top 10 tips for starting your first academic job
With university staff thinking about the start of the next academic year, Robert MacIntosh and Kevin O'Gorman offer some advice to staff due to arrive on campus this autumn.
Reward the forgotten foot soldiers of science
The story of CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing has tended to focus on a few key players.
So Many Research Scientists, So Few Openings as Professors
There is such a surplus of Ph.D.s that in the most popular fields, like biomedicine, fewer than one in six reach their goal in academia.
Keep it moving
A postdoc job is good for your career, but don't get stuck in an academic cul-de-sac, says Søren-Peter Olesen.
The measure of success
Rather than focusing on what members of underrepresented groups need to do to “adapt” to academic culture, we should be interrogating the system itself, which expects all of us to work excessively at the expense of our physical and mental health.
You Probably Won't Get Tenure. Get Your Ph.D. Anyway.
The one broadly marketable skill a humanist might acquire in graduate school is the ability to teach.
A winding path to satisfaction
Many feel there is only one path to success and that any deviations will be catastrophic. My own academic path might seem to support this belief. On the surface, it appears quite linear: undergrad, grad student, postdoc, faculty member. But if you look deeper, you will see the series of roadblocks and revised plans that led me to where I am today.
Leveraging Doctoral Requirements to Promote Reproducibility
How can reproducibility be funded and enforced? One solution is to make it a part of the requirements to complete a PhD.
Job-Seeking Ph.D. Holders Look to Life Outside School
As the supply of doctorate holders grows and their academic job prospects dwindle, schools take steps to help graduates find work beyond the academy.
The fool’s gold of Ph.D. employment data
Making proclamations about the scientific enterprise based on sparse employment and career data about junior scientists has become a common endeavor. But this approach is fundamentally flawed.
Lab Wars, a game of scientific sabotage
Two researchers today launch a game that captures this anarchic spirit. Board-game fans Caezar Al-Jassar, a postdoc at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and Kuly Heer, a clinical psychologist, have designed the card game Lab Wars to represent the scientific rat race, with extra sabotage.
Does mobility boost early scientific careers?
Young scientists are expected to change country and jobs every few years on average to get a chance to progress their academic career. Mobility in science stems from a long tradition. It is favoured for bringing very enriching experiences. But post docs and their scientific work do not always benefit from mobility. Here, EuroScientist looks into how being on the move every few years affects the life of researchers and looks at ways of enhancing work/life balance.
The Economics of Academic Self-promotion
Marketing is you telling others about yourself. Public relations is having someone else tell others about you.
Crunch time
Overtime pay for postdoctoral scientists is welcome — but could mean fewer positions.
Employment crisis for new Ph.D.s is an illusion
NSF surveys generate what seem to be conflicting data on the status of those entering the scientific job market
Writing book reviews during your PhD
Steph Wright wonders if it is better to speak your mind or to hold your tongue