Tootfinder

I like to complain about mean, petty, and just generally awful colleagues as much as anyone in #academia. But most people around here are alright. Some are even great. Today's example: a junior colleague at a different university asked to see something relatively minor, but still meaningful that I and a senior colleague had put together for internal purposes. When I asked the older guy if it was OK …

#UsPol #NIH #Academia
NIH scientists pub…

NIH scientists go public with criticism over Trump cuts
President Donald Trump’s National Institutes of Health director says some employees’ critical letter to him has “fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken.” Monday’s letter from NIH researchers and staffers says the Republican Trump administration’s policies waste public resources and harm people’s health. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya in his confirmation hearings pledged openness to views that might conflict with his, saying dissent is the “essenc…

If you want to help people in #academia who are maybe less fortunate than you, who have less famous supervisors, or work at less prestigious universities, here's one simple thing you can do:
Do proper literature research.
That means complete forward and backward snowballing from a decent seed set. Find everything that is relevant to your paper and cite it. Budget a couple of full…

Today's job: the utopian project of syllabus drafting. Imagining a perfect course is a way I deal with the existential dread brought on by the impending semester.
#academia

Good thread from @… about education, tolerance, double meanings:
#education #academia

Today's job: editing a former student's brilliant paper on a topic near and dear to my heart for publication in the journal. #Academia has its days.

#UkAcademia question: I see references to the "REF" a lot, including needing to publish papers that get a specific REF "rating" like 3* or 4*. Anyone knows what these stars mean and how do they decide how many stars your papers get?
#Academia

Are other academic journals seeing an uptick in obvious spam submissions? Over the past couple of years, we've received an increasing number of obviously irrelevant submissions - articles that have nothing to do with our focus. What's happening here? People trying to check some box for a performance review?
#academia

And so it begins... I started a new admin position yesterday - a holiday here - and today the emails have already started piling up. This is why I got a PhD.
#academia

I just saw an old piece of the kids' French schoolwork lying around. On the top of the sheet, printed in all caps, was "TA MISSION." My mind, warped by #academia, immediately had me wondering what my kids were learning about teaching assistants.