Queries and Discussion related to either qualitative or quantitative productivity of a scientist/scholar.
10
votes
4answers
207 views
How to hire editor to improve my paper
I'm thinking of hiring a contact/freelance editor to help me improve my paper, before I submit it. I'm looking for someone to perform proofreading and copy editing as well as broader, substantive ...
8
votes
3answers
267 views
Can I successfully adapt to an advisor who will not push me to work?
I am currently a first-year graduate student, now in the process of figuring out who I'd like to have as my thesis advisor. Of course, compatibility of research interests is quite important, but ...
26
votes
2answers
375 views
Maintain scientific output after having a baby
I could have written this question in some other stack places, but prefer to do here because the affinity with the audience. I am the head of a research group, 38 years old, engaged in a lot of things ...
3
votes
1answer
110 views
lecturing (teaching methods) for a diverse group of students
I just started teaching three courses at small medical training college: anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, and microbiology. Most of the students have a weak background in the sciences, and ...
12
votes
6answers
398 views
Keeping track of all you have to do in academia
Back when I was in graduate school and as a post-doc, life was fairly blissful. Only one big responsibility: research. Now as a faculty member I find so many things to do. Teach, supervise undergrads ...
23
votes
4answers
423 views
How to manage theorist's “labbook”?
Question:
Are there any guidelines, sources, or examples of good practices for maintaining theorist's research notebook?
Motivation and context:
Maintaining a lab notebook is a much advised (if not ...
74
votes
13answers
4k views
How to avoid procrastination during the research phase of my PhD?
I just finished all of my coursework for my PhD program, and am entering the research phase of my degree with a topic already in mind. I've already started the research, but I'm already finding that ...
12
votes
6answers
309 views
How does one keep herself updated with new research without forgetting older results?
The title is fairly generic in nature, so I'm trying to elaborate in the body. I'm interested in answers pertaining to Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), but I'm certain the question would be equally ...
12
votes
2answers
100 views
Balancing between finishing past projects and working on current ones
Personally, I never feel done with projects, as there are always a few open projects, in which I'm involved in. (And typically 1-2 which "I should have finished year ago or so".)
First, what are good ...
17
votes
3answers
430 views
How to encourage students to work more carefully and independently?
One of the challenges of advising students is working with students whose "quality control" expectations do not agree with that of the advisor. When such mismatches occur, how do we encourage them to ...
21
votes
2answers
273 views
How to do a literature review efficiently?
For a new project I want to compile a literature review to determine the state of the art and possible approaches to start with.
Last time I adhered to the following scheme, but it felt very ...
30
votes
7answers
1k views
How do I overcome fear of rejection when writing academic papers?
I don't know how to put it. I have never published before. Previously my one paper was rejected, that was because the experiments were not ready and my advisor asked me to still submit it just to have ...
15
votes
4answers
360 views
Which is the most accepted measure for an individual's academic productivity?
Among the various indices for academic productivity/impact in the respective field, which is most accepted one?
You can see some productivity measures, used in academia, here and here
This question ...
13
votes
2answers
356 views
What is the average number of articles written per author in a year and has it increased recently?
Does anyone researched the data about scientific productivity? I.e. what is the average number of articles written by author in a year in a specific field? I am referring to average, since this is ...
9
votes
2answers
110 views
How to efficiently get multiple outputs for a given set of inputs?
Background: I was reading about Google's Hybrid approach to research. This prompted me to think about how in academia I try to get multiple output from the one set of inputs. For example, I might try ...
4
votes
3answers
128 views
What academic discipline does “Productivity Science” come under?
I wish to categorise my large collection of electronic documents. I need a foolproof set of categories to put each document in. I want to use a classification system similar to how university schools ...
15
votes
3answers
488 views
How do universities deal with loss in productivity post tenure?
A tenure from a good university is generally considered to be the pinnacle of academic achievements. It is packed with so many benefits that it is easy to lose direction in one's research career post ...
6
votes
1answer
70 views
What are good practices for sharing protocols online
We're beginning a fairly large effort to share the vast number of protocols accumulated in our lab and pushing them all to the cloud. Naturally, you don't want the knowledge of older graduate students ...
16
votes
4answers
2k views
Use cases of org-mode as a scientific productivity tool for academics without programming needs
I am a social scientist working primarily on Linux, but also at times required to work on Windows systems at the University. I have been looking to improve my productivity in the academic workflow ...
19
votes
7answers
2k views
What are some good project-management tools for academics?
My advisers are starting to use Basecamp for my project, and I like most of it so far. I am wondering, though, about the arguments for and against Basecamp.
15
votes
3answers
395 views
Good ways to multitask
While multitasking is not a desired trait unique to academia, it's something that seems particularly important for graduate students and new faculty. I've had many students ask me how to multitask ...
20
votes
7answers
2k views
Software/App for electronic research notebooks
I want to keep a research notebook for my computational "experiments". Basically, I should at least be able to write text and attach images like plots. Other nice features to have would be
linking ...
14
votes
5answers
300 views
How should an educational institute woo good faculty?
What steps must an educational institution wanting to recruit good faculty take? There is a cycle in the academia:
Good doctorates from top universities invariably join other top universities as ...
19
votes
9answers
884 views
Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web?
This some kind of follow up question to How to prevent plagiarism of my papers?, since I've been clearly convinced that it was in my best interest to put my own papers on my webpage.
Now, since I ...
8
votes
3answers
333 views
Ways to manage something like a 'work-life balance'?
According to a recent international study on work-life balance within academia
"a majority of researchers and scientists had conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives at least two ...
20
votes
3answers
929 views
How to efficiently read mathematically and theoretically dense books in STEM fields?
When it comes to reading, there are literally thousands of methods from Speed Reading to SQ3R to Sequential(Word by Word till the end). My question is regarding reading mathematically/theoretically ...
4
votes
2answers
531 views
Is a self-taught person allowed to compete with other in a prize like Nobel Prize, Field Medal, etc?
If a person studies and/or does experiments at his/her own home or laboratory because of some reasons, is he/she still allowed to compete with others to get a prize like Nobel Prize, Field Medal, etc?
...
10
votes
2answers
341 views
What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing?
An incoming graduate student is typically required to help out as a TA, take courses both related to their research and required by the program, as well as to start reading up on the research topics ...
34
votes
7answers
2k views
Non-linear note-taking software
I'd be interested in tools helping to organize thoughts and ideas, especially in a non-linear way (i.e. not as most existing note taking tools, working with lists and bullets, but rather as a post-it ...
31
votes
6answers
954 views
Am I reading enough of the scientific literature? Should I read for breadth or depth?
Ever since starting graduate school I've tried to make scientific reading a part of my daily ritual; I track pages read using Beeminder, and the graph doesn't lie. It keeps me honest.
I aim to ...
10
votes
5answers
268 views
What are the common productivity measures of a scientist, like h-index?
I am aware of h-index. I was wondering what other types of scores are both widely and rarely used to measure the impact of a scientist?
18
votes
3answers
301 views
Scientifically meaningful sources of bibliometrics
Whether we like it or not, modern academia is increasingly being measured, in some vain attempt to get objective measures. Although it is unwise to fight 'being measured', it is at least possible to ...
