Academia

Shape shifting at the research career crossroads

Manu Saunders4 Comments

There are many reasons that academics may unexpectedly find themselves at a research career crossroads. This is different to the ‘other’ academic career crossroads, i.e. whether to stay or leave academia generally, which we all reach at some point in our career.

The research crossroads is a place where you suddenly realise that the research direction you thought you were heading in is no longer working for you. This can happen for a few reasons. Competitive effects and funding limitations are now more intense than ever; the fields you thought you were building a presence in aren’t recognising your work; experiments/methodologies you are working with no longer excite you; you can no longer trust the colleagues you trusted; new interests have drawn your attention etc. You have a job and a purpose, but where is your research heading?

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Social media declines and the academic blogosphere

Manu Saunders6 Comments

At the end of 2022, we all thought Twitter (now called X) was about to break. In my broader twitter network of mostly academia and ecology/enviro interested folks, I started losing connections by the day as many people deleted or walked away from their accounts and started up somewhere else. I hung on because I’m an optimist and it had been such a positive experience for me, so I hoped the storm of new ownership would blow over.

I signed up to Mastodon just in case, but after a few weeks it wasn’t really replicating my Twitter experience at the time and I stayed on at Twitter/X hoping things would improve. I also signed up at LinkedIn and tried out Reddit, but neither filled the twitter-shaped hole.

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Mental health and wellbeing effects of the academic grant treadmill

Manu Saunders2 Comments

It’s grant rejection time again for far too many Australian researchers. Many will have to jump straight on the application treadmill again, only to find out in 12 months’ time that it too was unsuccessful.

The problems with the ARC (and NHMRC) grant mills are numerous and well documented. I won’t go through them all again, but have a look at these blog posts by ARC Tracker, Shane Huntington and Jasmine Janes as examples.

Like many researchers, I’ve just received yet another ARC rejection – every one of my ARC applications, on top of all my other non-ARC rejections. The imposter syndrome gets worse each time, even though I’m fully aware how miniscule the chances of success are. Over my 13 year career of applying for research grants, I now have an overall personal grant success rate of less than 5% and I need to rethink my future.

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How can academia support diverse travel choices?

Manu Saunders2 Comments

There’s been a lot of background talk about why academics should reduce their travel for lots of reasons. But the last few years of rapid climate breakdown and ongoing pandemic have made this discussion all the more urgent.

Academics travel a lot. Conferences, field trips, collaboration visits, workshops, meetings, interviews and more. It’s a fun part of the job, and it can be necessary for many reasons.

I don’t think it’s useful to vilify academics that do travel – it’s fun and worthwhile to visit new places and interact with colleagues in person! And there are many valid reasons academics do need to travel sometimes. However, there are also lots of things that academics currently travel for that could very easily be forfeited or substituted with alternatives. (By ‘travel’, I’m mostly referring to international travel or travel outside your general region that usually requires plane travel).

Like most population-level issues, it shouldn’t be left up to the individual to feel guilty (or not) about their actions and have to make hard choices (or not) that may affect their career. This strategy is not equitable and often discriminates against the individuals with fewer privileges.

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Recognition where it matters for peer review

Manu Saunders3 Comments

There’s been a lot about quiet quitting and great resignations lately. We’re all tired and burned out from the never-ending pandemic and the gaslighting associated with it, compounded with the toxic productivity culture of academia that just seems to continually intensify.

A recent article in Nature Careers discussed results of a small reader poll where academics identified some of the activities they have been ‘quitting’ to ease their workload. Second on the list was peer review. As anyone working in editorial processes at the moment can attest to, it is getting harder and harder to find qualified reviewers to agree to review papers (or to accept editorial board roles).

I’ve heard multiple anecdotes from authors that some editors are now sending desk rejections claiming that the paper is not worthy of review because they couldn’t find anyone willing to review it after an arbitrary number of invitations were declined. This is a spurious correlation and unethical practice, but it’s a clear sign of an overstressed system.

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Funding data collection on inequitable academic processes and practices

Manu Saunders2 Comments

There are many aspects of the academic system that are unfair, inequitable, or just no longer fit for purpose in today’s world. Yet we are bound to work under these processes, which for many academics means we are either finding ways to work around them, working under them reluctantly, or leaving academia because of them.

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Normalise the ‘wanting to quit’ feels in academia

Manu Saunders8 Comments

We don’t talk enough about thinking about quitting academia.

We tend to focus on the two extremes, the success stories in academia vs the reasons many people quit. But what about the more common middle ground?

Most of us think about quitting multiple times during our careers without following through. There are many reasons (financial, personal or professional) why an individual can’t or won’t quit, even if they think about doing it. But we rarely voice these feelings to friends or colleagues because of the stigma around quitting, the risk of not being taken seriously afterwards, or the potential for professional retaliation.

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How to cold call an academic if you’re a student

Manu Saunders1 Comment

Academics receive a lot of unsolicited contact (cold calls) from students of all education stages, seeking advice or opportunities. I try to reply to most, but often I can’t – because it’s unclear what the student is asking and why they are contacting me.

Note, here I’m talking about students at other institutions that I’ve never met or have no prior connection with, not my existing students or students enrolled at the institution where I teach.

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