PhD Talk : Recent Episodes
Eva Lantsoght
I'm back with a quick bonus episode on the small university journals that are publish open access without any article processing charge.
Please check out
- AmeliCA
- Redalyc
- Open Journal Systems
- ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierias
- Latindex
A few grumblings on why it does not make sense to try to speed up our literature review using ChatGPT - a little nugget of Opinions while we prepare for the next season of the podcast.
In today's episode we do a Q&A. We start with a general update on what we are working on, what is going well, and what is not going well.
Then, we address the following questions that came in through the PhD Talk blog:
- What does your work setup look like? What does your setup look like at home and in the office, and how do you divide your time between both
- How do you take care of your mental health in academia
- Advice for transitioning in and out of academia (between academia and industry)?
- How can I get accepted into a PhD position?
Finally, we discuss what we've enjoyed reading in this year so far, what we are listening to currently (in terms of music and podcasts), and what we particularly enjoy at the moment.
References:
- Citavi
- The Making of Pro-life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works - Ziad W. Munson (Chicago University Press)
- Kadril - La Jolie Flamande
- Fellowship - The Saberlight Chronicles
- Haken - Fauna
- The Ezra Klein Podcast
- Why is this happening? - Chris Hayes
- Self-compassionate professor
- Adobe Audition
- Goodway coffee
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Kalin Kiesling. She is a nuclear engineer at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab where she develops the software that other engineers use to design and analyze new nuclear reactor concepts. She earned her PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, from which she also holds a bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering. We learn about her background and career path, and how she choose to get all her degrees at the same university. We also learn about her research and the methods she used during her PhD and the programming she carries out in her job, as well as about the timeline of the PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the various milestones in the program. We also learn about how she landed her position at Argonne, and how the pandemic influenced her life values and career aspirations.
Outside of her technical area in nuclear engineering, Kalin is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the nuclear industry, broader STEM field, and academia in general. At Argonne National Lab she is on a DEI council where she advocates for her colleagues and works with leadership to make impactful changes. We learn about the state of DEI in the nuclear industry and the changes occurring in the field, as well as Kalin's best advice on how to foster DEI in STEM and academia.
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family (husband and almost 4 year old daughter) and getting lost in one of her many hobbies (usually some form of crafting or gardening). As an academic parent of a baby, the pandemic certainly hit Kalin's research hard. We learn about Kalin's journey as an academic parent, the support provided by her university and advisor, and how her parenting journey coincided with the pandemic.
We round off the episode learning about Kalin's best advice for PhD students, how she sets boundaries around work, reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Kalin on Twitter
- Kalin on LinkedIn
In today's episode, we talk about special issues: what are they, what is the value of special issue, and why should you consider editing a special issue. We also discuss the caveats and increasing bad reputation on special issues related to the business model of some publishers. We look at the difference of special issues for journals directly, and those associated with events (mini symposia, session, etc). We also look at the joys and pitfalls of co-editing special issues.
Next, we look at the various steps: how to propose a special issue, how to send around the call for papers, how to manage the review process, and how to wrap up everything in the end.
Finally, we reflect on whether it is worth or not the time and effort of editing a special issue, and what the greatest joys are in this work.
In today's episode, we interview Emily Hoppe. Emily is a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. Before starting her PhD, Emily practiced as a staff nurse and psychiatric nurse practitioner at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland for eight years. Her clinical practice focused on the mental health of young children with behavioral and emotional concerns, supporting parents, and diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents with OCD. Before going to nursing school, Emily got a BA in English. We learn about her career path, and how she decided to return to academia while being in practice, and how she decided to go to Johns Hopkins for her PhD.
Emily's research focuses on parents' adverse and childhood experiences' impact on parenting practices, and the role of neighborhood safety in parenting. We learn about her mixed methods research, and how it fits within the timeline of her PhD program. We also learn about the major milestones of the PhD program in nursing at Johns Hopkins.
Emily is also an academic parent. We learn about how the birth of her child impacted her career decisions, the type of support she got as a practicing nurse, and the support system she has as a doctoral candidate and parent in her PhD program. We also discuss how the pandemic influenced her experience at the beginning of her PhD.
We round off the interview with learning about Emily's best advice for doctoral candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Dr. Debbie Gross
- Johns Hopkins University
- Johns Hopkins PhD program in nursing
In today's episode, Phil interviews Eva about grant writing. We learn about Eva's various sources of funding, the funding she has applied for in the past, and what has worked and what not. We also look at how helpful the feedback and grading of a proposal can be.
Then, we get into our best practices for grant writing. In summary, these are:
- Try various different funding sources
- Try both personal and consortium grants
- Think national and international
- EU funding is not impossible (although it is also really not the best-funded funding, but it is prestigious and thus good for your CV)
- Work with experienced grant writers in consortium
- Learn from the experience of your colleagues
- Get help from the grant writing office at your university
We also look at particular advice for early career scholars on getting their research funded, and when to quit an idea. We also discuss the difference between depending on funding for our salaries versus having a tenured position where we may not need to be paying our salaries out of our project.
In today's episode, we interview Jacqueline Shaia. She is a second year PhD student at Case Western Reserve University in the Clinical Translational Science PhD program. We learn about how she decided between going into the career path of a practicing physician and researcher, and how her background shaped her choices in her research and methods.
Her current work focuses on ocular disorders, especially the rare idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a vision threatening disease that mainly affects women of a reproductive age. We learned about the disease itself, the treatment options, and how it disproportionately affects Black women.
In addition to her research, Jacqueline is passionate about inspiring the next generation of scientists and showcasing the many different ways someone can have a research career. We talk about her use of social media and blogging, and the benefits of being more visible online.
We round off learning about her advice for doctoral candidates, setting boundaries around work, the impact of COVID-19 on her applications and start of the PhD, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
- Jacqueline's website
- Jacqueline's instagram
- Jacqueline's Twitter
- Interview with Jacqueline
- Translational science
- Case Western Reserve University
- Clinical Translational Science PhD program.
- Training T32 grant within the NIH
- Trinetx
In today's episode, we talk about presenting at conferences. We look at what's the point of conferences in the first place, and how digital conferences can recreate the opportunities for networking (or not), and for whom.
We also look at conferences as a genre, what the difference between writing a conference paper and presenting this conference paper is all about. This topic leads us into our best tips for presenting at conferences, and the use of visual information during presentations. We want to sell our research and ourselves, and have a take-home message for our audience.
To round off, we find that our take home message for today's episode is that one should have a take-home message for the conference presentation.
References
- Increase understanding at conferences - Ep. 106
- Attending your first conference - Ep. 68
- Virtual conferences - Ep. 22
In today's episode, we talk about starting as a new faculty member. Phil interviews Eva about when she started as a faculty member at USFQ and TU Delft, and what her advice would be for new incoming faculty.
We talk about how Eva found her faculty position, and how her teaching load at USFQ has changed over time. We also talk about the way in which professors are evaluated at various universities and how that reflects on how we prepare our tasks for the upcoming period of time and how we periodically reflect on our work and achievements.
We also look at administrative tasks and service, and how to balance between the fact that everything gets thrown on the new faculty member and the need to find time to work on our research. Similarly, we look at what realistic expectations are for teaching material (and accepting that it won't be perfect on the first run) and setting boundaries to avoid spending too much time trying to polish things to level of perfection.
In today's episode, Eva interviews the podcast co-host for season 3: Phil Creswell. Phil has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Social Sciences and a PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden. His PhD dissertation Chains of Trust: Networks of Persistent Resistance in Digital Activism is an ethnography of the hacktivist scene in (and around) Anonymous and its activism that looks at participation and collaboration in risky and costly activism online. We talk about Phil's career path so far, and what it is like to do a PhD in Sweden.
His research interests have tended to coalesce around social networks and social theory. Currently, he’s working on a book chapter about the Pirate Movement in Sweden, a paper with a collaborator about environmental activism, and trying to survive an intensive adjunct teaching position. We learn more about Phil's research as well as how he landed teaching positions after the PhD.
He will begin a new position at the University of Gothenburg as an Assistant Professor with a focus on teaching sociology to teacher students. We learn about the process of applying for this position, and what's coming up next for Phil.
He is also an increasingly distant figurehead for a highly successful metal review blog and all around nerd.
I asked ChatGPT how I can reduce my workload as a professor, and I have Some Opinions on that. Here’s what AI recommended me (in italic), and what I think about that (regular).
As a professor, reducing your workload can be challenging due to the many responsibilities you have.
You bet, AI, there’s a lot on my plate.
However, here are a few tips that may help:
Bring it on…
- Prioritize tasks: Make a list of your tasks and prioritize them based on importance and urgency. Focus on the most important tasks first. Yes, prioritizing is important – it’s the only way we can make time for writing. But we need a bit more time management tools than just listing everything and adding priority categories to it. While the Urgent-Important Matrix can be helpful to evaluate how we spend our time and what we focus on, it is more a tool for evaluating if we are working on our priorities and not so much a tool that helps us to find time for these priorities.
- Delegate tasks: If you have teaching assistants or administrative staff, delegate tasks to them to reduce your workload. I don’t have TAs nor RAs. Administrative staff can help, but only for booking rooms, invoicing and other things the central system wouldn’t allow me to do anyway – so they don’t really reduce the workload.
- Streamline your teaching methods: Look for ways to make your teaching more efficient, such as using technology or group work. I agree that streamlining teaching is important. I use checklists to do everything that needs to be done at the beginning of the semester and before classes start. Technology can help, but it can take a while to learn new tools and set these things up – so a new tool is not a direct remedy for the workload. I’m not sure how group work reduce the work load of a professor – except if it means less reports to grade (but the win is only marginal I think).
- Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries with your students and colleagues, such as office hours and response times, to reduce the amount of time spent on email or other administrative tasks. AI, you have no idea how many emails I get. I also don’t know how setting boundaries is going to help me reduce the amount of time spent on replying emails – stuff needs to be addressed anyway, right?
- Take care of yourself: Make sure to take breaks, exercise regularly, and maintain a healthy work-life balance to reduce stress levels and increase productivity. Hear hear – but maintaining that healthy work-life balance is rather hard when the workload is high.
- Seek support: Consider joining a peer mentoring program or working with a professional mentor to help you manage your workload more effectively. My first reaction is that most programs just take time and don’t address the root cause of the problem, which is understaffing in higher education as a result of neoliberal budget cuts.
- Re-evaluate your workload: Regularly review and assess your workload to see if there are any tasks that can be removed or streamlined to reduce the amount of time spent working. Indeed, we can optimize some time here, by leaning out of some service work – but when it comes to research and teaching, the project deadlines still need to be met and the exams all still need to get graded.
What do you think? Did ChatGPT give me good advice on how to reduce my workload?
When are growing into a position of becoming an independent scholar, an important element is to start new collaborations. You are no longer expected to work exclusively with your colleagues at your institution or with your former supervisor. You are expected instead to spread your wings and develop new collaborations.
Unless you are planning to shut the door behind you and work in solitude for the rest of your days, it will become necessary to reach out to colleagues worldwide who have skills that are required in certain projects. Initiating international networks and collaborations is also important for your publications: it is generally considered positive if you get the opportunity to publish with colleagues from different institutions.
So how do you initiate and build international collaborations? Do you buy a plane ticket to a colleague whose work you’ve read, and just barge into his/her office to make your colleague an offer for collaboration that he/she can’t refuse? There’s no need for such drastic ways, and there are a variety of ways indeed in which you can start working across institutions and across borders. Below, you can find a number of ideas to get started:
1. Reach out to colleagues
The colleagues you’ve met several times at conferences over the past years and had good talks are potential collaborators. If you have a chance to talk to one of your colleagues at a conference, propose to work on a topic together. Don’t be vague, but propose a topic that is of your mutual interest, that combines both your skills. Make sure you’ve read some of the work of your potential collaborator, so that you have a good grasp of what he/she has been working on recently. If you want to start small, propose to write a conference paper on a certain topic first, and then see where the results take you. If the collaboration is pleasant, you can consider to apply for funding for a joint project.
2. Reach out after reading a paper
If you’ve read an interesting paper, go ahead and reach out to the author to ask further questions. If the author proposes an interesting method, you can ask for supplementary material and suggest to implement this method to your results, and develop a publication together. You’d be surprised how often fellow researchers react enthusiastically. Don’t feel disappointed if the author gets back to you making it clear that he/she does not want to share additional thoughts and insights on the topic – if that’s the attitude of this person, you won’t have a good collaboration anyway.
3. Service appointments
An excellent way of starting international collaborations is through service appointments, and in particular through technical committees. As technical committees develop technical documents, you get the opportunity to publish these documents either as committee documents, or by working in smaller task groups. If you are in your early career, don’t let an opportunity slide to work on technical documents (provided that you have the time, and can deliver what you promised). Working in technical committees also gives you an opportunity to interact with colleagues from different institutions directly.
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Full post here
In today's episode, I answer the following questions:
- How much time does it take to write a paper?
- How can you remain focused on writing a paper over weeks on end?
- How can you quickly pull together a conference paper when the deadline is near?
This episode is loosely based on:
- How to write a paper in two days
- How much time does it take to write a paper?
In this episode, I talk about good habits to develop during the PhD, the post-doc years, and the tenure track years.
You can find the associated posts here:
- Good habits to develop during the PhD
- Good habits to develop as a post-doc
- Good habits to develop on the tenure-track
Another bonus episode!
We’ve all been in this awful situation: you need to write a paper or work on a chapter of your dissertation, but 20 minutes pass, and you can’t write anything. You go surf the internet for a little bit, return to your white screen and blinking cursor, and quickly get sucked into the internet again. Suddenly it is 5pm and you have not done anything. An entire day wasted without doing anything…
Writer’s block – it can strike us all at any given time.
If you feel that your writing is not moving anywhere, don’t sit through the day hoping that things will change. Take action, make some course-corrections, and save the remaining hours of your day.
Here is a list of 30 things you can try to get your juices flowing again:
1. Reuse some old material
Your first draft is not the paper that you are going to submit. Feel free to copy and paste some material from a previous paper or report, and start from there. I usually write down the research steps that I followed in a research report, and use that as the rough basis for my papers. Not using research reports? How about browsing through your lab book and just typing out some of the material that is in there? You will edit later anyway.
2. Go for a walk
If you look at the habits of highly creative people from the past, you will see that almost all of them made time to go for a walk and sort out their thoughts during the day. So, leave your desk and enjoy a brisk walk around campus.
3. Try pen and paper instead
Are the internetz distracting you too much? Why not ditching the text processor software, and writing by hand? Some (older) researchers still write their papers entirely by hand first, and then either type up the material themselves or give it to a secretary/typist. Since most of us don’t have a typist handy, you might have to type it up afterwards, but really, just typing goes super fast. Typing is a different action than writing.
4. Talk out loud
Stuck on forming sentences? Why don’t you try talking out loud instead? Talk to a friend or office mate, or even an imaginary friend and explain what your paper is going to be about. Try the same technique when you can’t find the right words for a sentence: just talk out loud: “What I want to say here in my own words is,… “.
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Full post on PhD Talk
In today's episode, I share my methods for staying engaged with the presentations at conferences.
Here are my seven strategies:
- Schedule smart: We all have a maximum capacity of how much learning we can do without a break, and how much learning we can do in a day. Ideally, we have this information available because we know how we study. If not, run an experiment at a conference and track your attention per half hour increments. When do you start to have difficulties staying with the presenter? How many hours of listening on a day can you stomach? Then, use this information to plan which sessions and presentations you will attend.
- Take notes: For me, taking notes is key. I’ve learned over the years that taking notes by hand (or on a tablet with pencil) works best, as I like sketching things and drawing arrows in my notes. Typing out notes works much less for me.
- Think of questions: To engage more with the contents, you can think of questions you’d want to ask the presenter. You don’t need to actually ask these questions, but just identifying questions will already help you understand the material at a different level.
- Relate to research: Try to find out how this research is interesting for your research. Are the findings directly relevant for your work? Is the methodology something that can inspire you? Could you use this information for teaching?
- Note down action items: What will you do with what you’ve learned? Maybe you want to try out the methodology they propose on your data, or check their test results against your model, or maybe you want to read the full paper after the conference. Jot down at least one action item for each presentation, and put this task on your schedule for after the conference.
- Follow up: If a presentation is particularly interesting for you, go talk to the presenter afterwards or send them a follow-up email after the conference. As you get to talk more about their research, you’ll gain an even deeper understanding of the work and its implications.
- Sleep: If you want to be fresh and able to learn, get enough sleep. Getting enough rest at a conference can be particularly challenging if the social program runs late into the enough. I will often have to make a conscious choice between attending an early session and attending a dinner, to make sure I don’t get too drowsy for the actual conference. I also try to add a buffer day when I have a difference in timezone between home and the conference to adjust to the jetlag (and to have a buffer in case something goes wrong with the flights).
This episode is based on an earlier blog post.
I’ve found what really works for me to write an abstract in roughly 30 minutes. As I was googling “How to write an abstract” in the past, I came across this article by Philip Koopman which caught my attention.
What I most like about this website is the questions it has in the different sections your abstract should contain:
Motivation: Why do we care about the problem and the results?
Problem statement: What problem are you trying to solve?
Approach: How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem? Did you use simulation, analytic models, prototype construction, or analysis of field data for an actual product?
Results: What’s the answer?
Conclusions: What are the implications of your answer? Is it going to change the world (unlikely), be a significant “win”, be a nice hack, or simply serve as a road sign indicating that this path is a waste of time (all of the previous results are useful)?
In fact, whenever I now write an abstract, I simply copy and paste these questions into a new document. Then I start answering them one by one. Sometimes I just talk out loud and write it down. Style and grammar don’t matter to me at that point – I just need to get the ideas out first.
These answers then make up the first draft of my abstract. I simply delete the questions, and print out this first version. At that point, I start manipulating the abstract into a readable text, in correct English (as good as possible in my case), and making sure the entire piece flows from its starting point and background description towards the results and conclusions.
Do you have a method which helps you to write abstracts?
In today's episode, we interview Jenny Orlando-Salling. Jenny is a PhD Fellow in Law at the University of Copenhagen. Originally from Malta, Jenny has lived, studied and worked in a number of countries eventually settling down in Copenhagen, Denmark where she raises her children. Prior to her PhD, Jenny served as a diplomat in Brussels (at the EU) and Egypt. She holds degrees in Law and Political Science from UCL and the LSE. We talk about her career path, and how she returned to academia after a number of years in the foreign service. We also zoom in to her PhD program, which is combined with an LLM, and the structure of this program, as well as its requirements with regard to courses, teaching, international fellowship, and other milestones in the program.
Jenny's research focuses on colonialism in EU Law. We learn about how her experience as a diplomat shaped her research interests, as well as how the experience of always being on-call as a diplomat influenced how she set boundaries around work when she returned to academia.
Jenny is currently pregnant with her third child and has two daughters (a four year old and a 10 month old). She is married. We learn about her experience as an academic parent, and the differences in support she experienced as a new parent in the foreign service and as a parent pursuing a PhD at a university in Denmark.
To round off, we learn her best advice for PhD students, how Jenny sets boundaries to her work, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on her research and PhD, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Jenny's Twitter
- Reimagining a European Constitution
- Understanding Identity and the Legacy of Empire in European Constitutionalism: The Case of Hungary
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Malorie Albee. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northern Michigan University with a PhD from Ohio State University. We learn about her career path, and the various moves she and her family have made over the course of the past years.
We learn about the PhD program at Ohio State, and the structure of coursework, candidacy exam, proposal, and dissertation. We were surprised to learn about the written part of the candidacy exam, which requires the candidates to write five 20-page essays between Monday 8am and Friday 5pm of the exam week.
She studies the bioarchaeology of the human foot skeleton. We learn about what the bones in skeletal feet can teach us about the impact of our sedentary lifestyles, and why bioarchaeologists have perhaps not spent as much time on exploring this part of skeletal remains.
We talk about Malorie's experience in applying for a job after the PhD: when she started to apply, the type of positions she applied for, and what the campus interview is like for the academic positions she interviewed for.
Malorie also has a 6-year-old son, and we discuss how her experience as an academic parent has shaped some of the work she has done in her campus community: from advocating for lactation spaces that are not on the other end of campus, to setting an example as a mother and academic to her son and others.
We round off with her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19 on her PhD and data collection, and what a day looks like in the life for her.
References
- Diagnosing tarsal coalition in medieval Exeter
- Tarsal metric trends over the Medieval-Post-Medieval transition in London
In today's episode, we interview Maria Balaet. Maria is a computational neuroscientist at Imperial College London (final PhD year). We learn about how she has wanted to become a scientist from a very young age and how she achieved moving from Romania to the UK for her studies.
Her research focuses on using large scale cognitive testing and machine learning methods for understanding how cognitive processes differ relative to the general population in people affected by neurological conditions or who are drug users. We learn about the methods she has used in her research, and how her methods were adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maria is also a mentor for In2Science UK, teaches and supervises students part of the Imperial College London Translational and Experimental Neuroscience Masters courses. We learn more about the PhD program at Imperial College and the tasks PhD candidates typically take on.
Maria is very passionate about public engagement with science, having delivered over two dozen public lectures across the UK just in the past three months. She also worked as a scientist for the TV show the Family Brain Games. We learn about her experience working on the TV show and giving public lectures, and how this engagement has made her PhD experience richer.
We also learn from Maria's experience as an academic mother, and how she has been balancing motherhood and her research during the pandemic.
Finally, we learn about her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19 on her research, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Find Maria on Twitter
- Maria's profile
In today's episode, we first catch up on what we are working on, what is currently going well, and what we are currently struggling with.
Then, we dive into the four questions that we received to address:
- In the spirit of the Holidays: How can one just unplug from work? I used to say there is no holidays for grad students”, but that is bad work cultures
- What is your WFH setup?
- How can you attract differently-abled people to work for you?
- Which country provides maximum employment after a PhD degree?
We also discuss which books we enjoyed reading in 2022, and what we are currently appreciating.
References
- The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
- This tender land - William Kent Krueger
- Lauren Groff - Matrix
- Hela Haasse - Oeroeg
- Haruki Murakami - Norwegian wood
In today's episode, we interview Jen Loch. She grew up in Florida (USA) which encouraged her focus on a profession in marine science from a young age. She completed her B.S. in Biology from Florida State University, and M.S. in Marine Biology through the Three Seas Program at Northeastern University. She completed her PhD in conservation biology at the University of Central Florida. We learn more about the PhD program she followed, and the milestones along the way.
In between her masters and doctorate, she spent several years teaching biology at local colleges, worked at an aquarium, and as a biologist for a local government. We talk about her career path and how it took a while for all conditions to line up for her to get started with a PhD
Jen's research has focused on predatory fishes and their habitats, as well as how they are influenced by anthropogenic pressures (e.g., fishing and habitat alteration). We learn about her research, how she used fieldwork, and some of her main insights.
She is married to her husband of 11 years and they have two daughters, who were born during the course of their doctorates, and are now 3 and 5 years old. We learn about their experience being doctoral candidates with children, the support Jen's university offered, and how she combines academia and parenting.
Finally, we will hear Jen's best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, the impact of COVID-19 on her doctorate, and what a day look likes in the life for her.
In today's episode, we look back on 2022 on a month-by-month basis. We reflect on what we have learned this year, what we would have done differently in hindsight, and what we hope to change in 2023. Finally, we also look at what we have upcoming as major milestones in 2023.
In today's episode, we interview Chantelle Taylor. Chantelle is a second year Phd student at Loughborough university. She is the mother of 3 boys and uses her experiences of mothering as a springboard for her research. We learn how motherhood influenced her choices with regard to studying, and going for a PhD, as well as how her research is influenced by her own experiences with postnatal depression. We also learn about the institutional and personal support she has received from her university as a mother, and as a mother of children with additional needs.
Chantelle’s interest in self reflexivity and autoethnography as well as her critique of what it means to be a mother has led her to a fascination of challenging the unchallenged both in terms of motherhood and good academic research. We learn about the methods she uses for her research, and the entanglement of feelings of adequacy surrounding doing a PhD and motherhood.
We also learn more about the length and format of the PhD at Loughborough, and how the annual review takes place.
Finally, we round off with learning about Chantelle's best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, how COVID-19 impacted her daily work, and what a day looks like in the life for her.
References
- Loughborough University
- Chantelle's Twitter profile
In today's episode, we talk about how to decide on where to publish or present research. We first look at how we decide whether work is suitable for a conference paper or a journal paper.
Then, we zoom in further on conferences. We discuss the differences between big and small conferences, how many conferences to shoot for on a yearly basis, and how to get funding to attend conferences. We also learn from Sarah's and Eva's past experiences.
Then, we look at journal papers. We discuss how to select the right journal, how to identify the right audience for a paper, and look into the discussion on publishing open access or not. We also discuss when we know when work is ready to be sent to a journal, and Eva shares how she usually works with her PhD candidates through various versions of a manuscript.
In today's episode, we interview Charles Grimm. Charles is an assistant professor of English at Georgia Highlands College and a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State University. Charles uses a heavy focus on literacy and metacognition in his two-semester composition courses. We talk about his career path, and the unique insights he gained as a PhD candidate while also teaching at a community college.
His dissertation focuses on the levels of oppression present in current ideas of "Authorship," especially as practiced with freelance ghostwriters and first-year composition students. We learn about the methods he used for his research, and the findings about the perception of credibility of writing depending on who it is attributed to.
He has been married to his best friend for 13 years and they are raising two children the best they can to live life and each other. We talk about when during his career and PhD the children were born, and what his experience of being an academic parent has been - especially with a newborn during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, we hear from Charles about his best advice for PhD candidates, how he sets boundaries around work, how COVID-19 impacted his work and daily tasks, and what a day in the life looks like
References
- The rise of writing: redefining mass literacy - Deborah Brandt
- The ghostwritten op-ed: an unacceptable deception - Dan Gillmor
- Secrets of a Ghostwriter: The Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering the Theory, Skills, and Politics of Ghostwriting - Claudia Suzanne
- Love is blind
In today's episode, we talk about academic commutes. Sarah lives in Amsterdam and works in Brussels (and also stays in Brussels during parts of the week) and Eva divides her time between Quito and Delft. We talk about the practical aspects of our commutes, and how we divide our time between both places. We discuss what has changed over the years and what the impact of COVID-19 has been.
Then, we look at our experience with working in two places: the strategies we use for working at distance, the strategies we use for working at two places, and what some of the challenges are when working and living in different countries.
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Cathy Mazak. Cathy was a tenured, full professor when she founded a writing-focused professional development company for women and nonbinary academics. Cathy and her team are dedicated to changing the way that academics leverage writing and publication to create the careers and lives they want through courses and group coaching programs. We learn from her experience in how she pivoted from being a tenured full professor to a business owner, as well as her focus in her business on empower academic womxn and the ways in which academia tends to thwart the progress of those of minorities.
She has a PhD from Michigan State University and is the editor of several scholarly collections and the author of numerous textbooks and academic journal articles. In her work as a professor at The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez she attracted external funding for her work in bilingualism and higher education and co-founded a research center. We learn from her experience in how she crafted her PhD research journey towards her position at The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez and how she could get her dream job after her PhD.
Her popular podcast, Academic Writing Amplified, teaches how to use writing to resist the racist, ableist, patriarchal culture of academia. She is the author of Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing - part manifesto and part writing advice book, and we get to hear Cathy's advice on how to decide which writing projects to take on.
Finally, we learn about Cathy's experience as an academic mother of three and how she balanced academia and motherhood, as well as her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, how COVID-19 impacted her work, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Cathy Mazak's website
- Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing
- Academic Writing Amplified
- Navigate - course for writing
- Amplify - pre-tenure program
- Elevate - post-tenure program
- Academic mission statement
- Calendly
- Acuity
In today's episode, we talk about finding time for reading and writing throughout the PhD, and as a faculty member. We look at how we can stay up to date with the literature after finishing the literature review, and how to write regularly.
We share the strategies we use, and how these strategies may evolve over time.
References:
- Ep. 54: Interview with Dr. Anna Clemens
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Rasheda Weaver, who turned her dissertation into a business. Rasheda is one of the world’s leading experts on social and commercial entrepreneurship. She conducted the first large-scale empirical study on the social, economic, and legal activities of social enterprises in the United States and is the Founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory, Inc. As a Professor, she has taught entrepreneurship to over 1,000 students globally.
She served as the first Assistant Professor for the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that was established with a $15 million donation at Iona College in 2017, helping to build its teaching, research, and service foundation. We learn in the interview how she transitioned from her faculty position to her business, as well as how the skills she learned during her PhD helped her start a business. We also hear from her about the skills she acquired as an entrepreneur which she had not developed in academia.
Dr. Weaver’s forthcoming textbook is entitled “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction.” It is being considered a seminal work in the field of social entrepreneurship and will be published in January 2023. We talk about the book itself, her research and writing process, as well as finding a publishing deal.
Rasheda is also an academic parent, and we talk about when her children were born during her research career and how she balance research and motherhood. We round off with her best advice for PhD candidates, setting boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory
- Rasheda's website
- 5-day online bootcamp
- Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction.
- Raul Pacheco-Vega
- Get a life, PhD
- The most powerful weapon on earth is a human soul on fire
- Business instagram
- Personal instagram
- Winter always comes: Social enterprises in times of crisis.
- Introduction: Social entrepreneurship education special issue.
- Putting the commercial in social enterprise education: Employing the for-profit to nonprofit business model in the classroom.
- Facilitating business online: The utilization, benefits, and challenges of online social enterprise directories.
- The impact of COVID-19 on the social enterprise sector.
In today's episode, we do a Q&A. We start with discussing what we currently are working on, what is going well, and what we are struggling with.
Then, we address the following questions from readers:
- How can I select the right journal for my article?
- How do you handle recommendation letters, and what if the student is not good?
- Postdoctoral research
- How to develop technical writing?
- Will you start a podcast for MSc students in civil engineering?
We round off by discussing books we've enjoyed reading this year, as well as our love of the moment.
References
- Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
- Sunken red _ Jeroen Brouwers
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life - George Saunders
- Crying in H-mart - Michelle Zauner
- A visit from the goon squad - Jennifer Egan
In today's episode, Eva interviews Dr. Gayannée Kedia. Gaya is a researcher and teacher in psychology and neuroscience at the University of Graz, Austria. She owns degrees in biology and psychology and has worked for several universities in France, the UK, Germany, and Austria. Parallel to her academic activity, she works as a writing coach and scientific trainer. She is also the founder of abrilliantmind.blog, a blog aimed at helping scientists be more productive and happier at work.
We talk about Gaya's career trajectory and research path, and how she came to teach workshops on academic writing as well as blogging. We then zoom in on the common difficulties PhD candidates encounter with academic writing and productivity in general, and what supervisors can do to better support their candidates. We also hear from Gaya about her best tips for academic writing and productivity, as well as her best tip for PhD candidates.
Finally, we hear about how she integrates work and life, how COVID-19 impacted her work, and what a typical day in the life looks like for her (even though she does not have typical days).
References
- Gaya's blog
- Gaya's portal at the University of Graz
- Gaya's Facebook
- Gaya's Twitter
- Gaya's Instagram
- Gaya's YouTube
- Gaya's LinkedIn
- Tranquillity by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters - Laura Vanderkam
- 168 hours: You have more time than you think - Laura Vanderkam
- Focusmate
In today's episode, we look at Sarah's expectations for the second year of her PhD, and what her main points of action and milestones will be. We look a bit further at the process of getting ethics approval at her university, and her plans for data collection. We also get an update on her proposal, and what getting this funding would mean for her for the rest of her PhD years.
We then look at the second year from a bit of a broader perspective: how is it different from the first year, and what are some of the common struggles in the second year of the PhD. We also talk about the famous two-year dip, and how COVID-19 has disrupted this (or not).
Finally, we look at what Eva remembers from her second year (which was 12 years ago). As she started to use a simple planning system in MS Word (with things she wanted to achieve on a monthly and weekly basis, as well as a log of what she did), she was able to browse these files and refresh her memories of what she did during the second year.
References
- Data collection - Ep. 72
- Data management, as part of the interview with Dr. Lena Karvovskaya - Ep. 45
- Defending a proposal - Ep. 84
- The valley of shit, or the dips of the PhD
In this week's episode, we interview Malwina Gudowska. Malwina is a Polish-Canadian writer and linguist based in London, UK. Her academic background includes a BA in International Relations, a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism and the Columbia Publishing Course. In 2018, she completed an MA in Linguistics at University College London and is now pursuing a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research focuses on the emotionality and emotional communication of mothers raising multilingual children.
We talk about her career path, and how she moved from journalism to linguistics, and how this change was intertwined with her parenting journey. We also learn more about how she combines her work as a journalist and her part-time PhD studies, while also parenting. We dive deeper into multilingual parenting, and our own experiences with this topic, as well as the institutional and emotional support Malwina observed (or not) when her children were born.
References
- Malwina's website
- Malwina's instagram
- Malwina on LinkedIn
- Malwina on Twitter
- Birkbeck, University of London
- One parent one language
- A Mother's tongue: The complexity of raising multilingual children
In today's episode, we talk about doctoral defenses. We start by looking at the differences between defenses in the Netherlands and Belgium, and then we zoom into the defenses we have attended (and, in Eva's case, her own defense experience). We look at the various functions defenses in their different formats have.
Then, we look at some findings from the research on effective methods to prepare for the defense, how Eva prepares to be a committee member, and what has changed as a result of COVID-19.
References
- How to prepare for a doctoral defense
- Planning and passing for your defense: a global toolbox for success
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Nathan Henton. He completed his PhD in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication at the University of Memphis in the U.S. state of Tennessee in 2019 while teaching full-time at a small, private university in the state of Arkansas. Nathan's teaching emphasis was first-year writing and linguistics, and his research focused on writing pedagogy and writing program evaluation. W We learn about his career path and what it was like to combine teaching and doing a PhD. We also zoom in on the field of Writing Studies, and the research Nathan carried out for his PhD.
He raised two young children during his PhD years. We learn about his experience as an academic parent (or should we say: academic family), and what he has learned from juggling these various roles.
He has worked outside academia for the last year, currently as a paralegal at a small immigration law firm. We talk about the shift from academia to industry, and what helped Nathan find a position in industry.
Finally, we talk about what a day in the life looks life, the impact of COVID-19 on his work and daily life, his best advice for PhD candidates, and how to set boundaries.
References
- Nathan Henton on LinkedIn
- Nathan Henton on Twitter
- South Mississippi writing project
- The History of English as a Tool for Teaching Grammar
- The development of writing studies in the US
In today's episode, Eva catches up with Sarah as she is preparing to defend her proposal for funding for her research. We start with a recap of the proposed project and the steps in the process of obtaining the funding.
Then we look at how Sarah is preparing to defend her proposal: how she is preparing for her presentation and how she is preparing to answer questions. We learn about the practice defenses she has been using to practice.
Finally, we look at some of the practical aspects that can go wrong (such as national strikes with the trains), which led to Sarah traveling a day in advance to Brussels.
References
- Writing a research proposal - Ep. 56
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Heather Walker. She is a senior people scientist at Culture Amp, who recently switched from academia to industry. She has a PhD in disability studies from the university of Illinois at Chicago.
We learn about Heather's career path - from the PhD in Chicago via being an instructor at the University of Utah and a social scientist at the health system to her current position at Culture Amp. We talk about how she is using her research skills in her current job, and how she navigated the transition from academia to the industry.
Next, we talk about Heather's experience as a person with diabetes - how she experienced her studies, her PhD, and her work (as an academic and currently). We also talk about how universities can welcome their disabled and chronically ill students and faculty.
Then, we learn about Heather's parenting journey and how it was interwoven with her academic career, and the COVID-19 pandemic. We learn about the support she received from her university, and how she worked for a long period of time without childcare.
Finally, we round off with her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- The Chronic Scholar blog
- Heather’s Linkedin
- University of Utah
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- SaaS Software as a Service
- Culture Amp
- Ungrading - Susan Blum
- Creating accessible teaching materials
In today's episode we talk about teaching. We start from the practical aspect of teaching loads and the various contracts PhD candidates tend to have (and the role of teaching in these contracts), as well as the various teaching assignments that faculty members can get.
We learn about Sarah's experience and expectations with regard to teaching during her PhD and Eva's various teaching loads over the years.
Eva also shares the main lessons she has learned over the years: to balance teaching and active learning activities, to provide the same idea in different formats, and to understand that every group is different and what works one semester or in one country may not work in a different time or place.
We round off by looking at what we learned from teaching online and what we will take into the classroom.
References
- Ep. 24 - Online teaching
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: 10 Ways for more Efficient Teaching
- The first semester of teaching, and my current struggles (Eva's blog post from 2014)
In today's episode of the podcast, we interview Raghavi Viswanath. She is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and also works as a senior research associate at the Public International Law and Policy Group in Amsterdam, a consultant for cultural rights collectives in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and a lecturer in human rights law at the University of East London, as well as a careers coach at the St. Anne's college in Oxford and a moot court mentor.
We learn about Raghavi's career path and PhD research, as well as what the PhD is like at her university and how far along the journey she currently is. Since she is also our first guest doing a PhD in law, we learn a bit more about the different doctoral degrees in law, and in particular the difference between the JD and PhD in law. We also look at the future prospects of those who select this doctoral journey, and what Raghavi has learned so far on her doctoral journey.
We round off the episode learning about a day in the life of Raghavi, the impact of COVID-19 on her PhD and daily tasks, her best advice, and how she sets boundaries around work
References
- EUI
- University of East London
- On the northbound gaze, see Mogobe Ramose, ‘“African Renaissance”: A Northbound Gaze’ (2000) 19:3 Politeia 47, at 47-61.
- On breaking form/genre/language conventions, see Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera (2nd ed., Aunt Lute Books, 1999).
- See also Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau and Marie Moise's Italian translation of Grada Kilombo's Plantation Memories for disrupting language conventions.
- On the Irulars, the semi-nomadic community, see Thanaraj, ‘Jai Bhim Portrays The Injustices Faced By The Irular Tribe Of Tamil Nadu, But Who Are They?’, Adivasi Lives Matter, 19 November 2021
- On the need to visibly center collaborative praxis in academia, see this thread by Rohini Sen.
- Some scholars are compiling a resource on caring as a research ethic/method
- On challenging Eurocentric epistemologies, see this interactive Walking Together guide put together to incorporate First Nations, Metis, and Inuit perspectives into the University of Alberta curriculum
- On Global North scholars ceding space, see Dr. Ibram X Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist (One World, 2019). See also Dr. Tara Van Ho's scathing twitter thread
- Scholars whose work on working against Eurocentric epistemologies, decolonizing curricula and academia which have really inspired me: Lotika Sarkar, Gayatri Spivak, Foluke Adebisi, and Clelia Rodriguez, amongst others.
- Devon Price - Laziness does not exist
In today's episode, we do a Q&A session. Before diving into the questions, we give a general update on what we are working on currently, what is going well, and what we are struggling with.
Then, we answer a number of questions from our listeners. The first question deals with how to select a research problem. The second set of questions deals with writing the review of a paper - how to write a good review, what to include in the review, and how much time we spend on reviewing papers. The third set of questions deals with motivation: if we should have a lot of energy to do a PhD, and how to find motivation for the PhD during the summer time.
We round off today's episode with what we are currently "loving".
References
- How to select a thesis topic
- How to review a paper
In today's episode, we look at how we prepare for an upcoming semester. Eva explains which tasks she usually carried out before each semester, in terms of getting all material ready for teaching and in terms of planning.
We dive further into the topic of reflection on progress, and how often we (would like to) do so. A monthly review may be over a time frame that is too short for the nature of research. But when we don't teach, we also don't really feel the structure of the semesters.
Finally, we also discuss how each semester is different, and how the semester itself has its ebb and flow.
References
- Planning a pandemic semester
- Eva's weekly template from Spring 2022
- Eva's semester prep task list
In today's episode, we talk about holidays, taking time off, and boundaries around work.
First, we look at the regulations different universities have around taking time off for their PhD candidates and faculty.
Then, we discuss how we take time off and how we disconnect from work.
Finally, we discuss how we set boundaries around work, some "rules" we have for ourselves with regard to boundaries, and how our boundaries may have changed over time.
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Martijn Molenaar. Martijn obtained his bachelors in Chemistry/Life Science in the Netherlands in 2006. After that, he worked in industry for a while as a lab technician, after which he moved to Utrecht University for a position as research technician. He fell in love with science and transitioned from technician to PhD candidate at Utrecht University. Martijn tells us about his experience and his perhaps unconventional career path.
During his PhD, Martijn studied the role of lipids in liver health and disease. He studied how the fat-soluble vitamin A is stored in liver cells and also built a computational pipeline to analyze lipidomics data. Martijn tells us about his research, and how he followed his interest to go from bench-focused research to computational work.
To further his interest in computational biology, Martijn did his postdoc at EMBL in Heidelberg (Germany) between June 2020 and June 2022. By chance, we interviewed Martijn on the final day of his postdoc. In the interview, he reflects on his experience during the postdocs and his next step, back in the Netherlands, where he will start as a project leader in data science research at an applied university.
Martijn is also an academic parent. His son was born in summer 2019, so he navigated writing his PhD thesis and being a new parent. Moreover, he got the chance to work part-time (4 days a week) when his son was born. We talk about what it is like to work part-time to get an extra day a week to spend with your child, and how to manage the workload while being part-time.
Finally, we round of the interview with Martijn's best advice for PhD students, what a day in the life looks like, how to set boundaries, and the impact of COVID-19 on his work and daily tasks.
References
- Find Martijn on Twitter
- Martijn's publications
- Retinyl esters form lipid droplets independently of triacylglycerol and seipin: biochemistry/cell biology of vitamin A storage in liver
- LION/web: a web-based ontology enrichment tool for lipidomic data analysis: a web-tool that we built to perform lipidomics analysis
- Lipidontology website
- Utrecht university
- EMBL Heidelberg
- Lipidomics
- Molecular dynamics
In today's episode, we talk about how we plan our days, and how our summers may be different from the rest of the years.
We discuss when we decide what needs to be done when, the various levels of planning we use, and what a typical day or week looks like for us.
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Marta Porniece Kumar. Marta by training is a neuroscientist and currently in a wrap-up Postdoc phase at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research. During her doctoral and current postdoctoral research phase in a strategic partnership with industry she is excited to understand how hormones access the brain to control systemic metabolism and ultimately lay the foundation for development of brain-specific targets to treat obesity and diabetes. In this episode, Marta tells us more about her PhD research, what it was like to do a PhD in partnership with industry, and what the structure of her PhD program looked like.
Since 2018 she has been actively involved in Max Planck PhDNet network at different roles and working on several career related projects, e.g. raising sponsorship funds for N2 event in 2019, hosting online web-series talks with speakers and alumni of MPS, being founding member of Career Evolution web series, and leading the Career Development & Conference working group. At the end of her PhD she continued the momentum and brought her experience and network into Max Planck PostdocNet, where she now serves as a spokesperson. In the interview, Marta tells us about how they pivoted to very successful online events during COVI-19.
Marta enjoys exploring new places and spaces through running, she regularly competes with her colleagues at the local running events. Lastly, she balances her research and voluntarily work with parenthood of two school-aged children and is currently working on solidifying the next steps in her career. We talk about her experience as an academic parent of primary-school-aged children, and the support she appreciated as a parent during her PhD.
We round off the interview with the questions we ask all our interviewees about their best advice to PhD candidates, how to set boundaries to work, how COVID-19 impacted their work, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
* Find Marta on LinkedIn
* Find Marta on Twitter
* Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research website
* Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research on Twitter
* PhDNet on Twitter
* PhDNet on LinkedIn
* Max Planck PhD Net Career Development & Conference working group
* PhD Net website
* PostdocNet on Twitter
* PostdocNet on LinkedIN
* PostdocNet website
* Learn more about Marta's research
* Family trees of scientists in neuroscience
* Novo Nordisk
In today's episode, we talk about supervision: both from the perspective of developing a good relationship as a PhD candidate with your supervisor, and from the perspective of being a good supervisor (as a PhD candidate) for master's students.
We talk about the importance of setting clear expectations, and getting to know the working style of your supervisor so that you can work together optimally. We also look at realistic expectations for how and when to receive feedback, as well as strategies for effective communication with your supervisor and as a supervisor, as well as methods for having fruitful supervision meetings that both touch upon the contents of the research and the overall progress.
Then, we look at the topic of feedback: how to give feedback, and how to receive feedback. Finally, we look at how conflicts result in supervision relationships, how such conflicts can be solved, and what to do when the conflict cannot be solved.
References
- Supervision issues - Ep. 18
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Chrysan Mohammed. Chrysan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Medical Affairs and Scientific Evidence at Johnson and Johnson Vision Care in Jacksonville Fl. She obtained her PhD in Molecular Medicine from The University of Toledo, College of Medicine and Life Sciences.
We learn about Chrysan's career path before the PhD, how she applied and got into a PhD program, her experience during the PhD as well as what the PhD program is like at The University of Toledo, and how she then landed her post-doctoral fellowship in exactly her field of interest. She also gives us insights into doing a lab-based PhD, and how she found the lab she wanted to work in. Finally, we look at how the skills she learned during her PhD are essential to her current work.
At the end, we round off with the questions we ask all our interviewees: on the impact of COVID-19 on Chrysan's research and personal life, her best advice for PhD students, how she sets boundaries to work, and what a day in the life looked like for her during the PhD.
References
- University of Toledo
- A PON for All Seasons: Comparing Paraoxonase Enzyme Substrates, Activity and Action including the Role of PON3 in Health and Disease
- Targeted Disruption of Paraoxonase 3 in a Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rat Model of Chronic Kidney Disease Increases Renal Cortical Pro-Inflammatory Eicosanoids
- Paraoxonase-3 Regulation of Cardiotonic Steroids Mediates Renal Injury and Dysfunction in a Dahl Salt Sensitive Model of Chronic Kidney Disease
- Circulating lactonase activity but not protein level of PON-1 predicts adverse outcomes in subjects with chronic kidney disease
In today's episode, we learn about Sarah's preparation for the data collection of her PhD. We talk first about the research itself and the research question that the experiments will address. Then, we address the data collection methods that she will use, and the tools she will use for the data collection. We dive a bit deeper into the participant recruitment, which is of particular importance in Sarah's experiment.
Then, we look into things to consider: data management, and ethics approval, which are also important elements of the preparation for data collection. We then look at what will happen after the experiment: how the data will be analyzed, and how Sarah can make part of her research data open.
Ultimately, we look at the interaction with others: the role of Sarah's supervisor in preparation for data collection, how PhD candidates in her research group support each other, and how she exchanges ideas with peers.
References
- Data management - Episode 45
In today's episode, we interview Harsha Sheelam, our first guest from India. Harsha is a PhD candidate, published author of children's books and juvenile fiction, business owner, social worker, and business graduate. She shares her story of how her career path developed and how she decided to go do her PhD, as well as the various topics she has been researching from her overall perspective of a marketing researcher.
Looking at the various topics Harsha has researched, we learn more about the methods that she has used so far: action research, and quantitative methods. We also hear from her literature recommendations on qualitative methods. Then, we learn more about the structure of the PhD program at IFHE University in India, and how far Harsha is on her PhD journey.
We also learn about Harsha's award-winning paper on superheroes, and what helped her achieve this success, and what she has learned so far on her PhD journey. We wrap up the interview by looking at Harsha's best advice for PhD students, the impact of COVID-19 on her PhD, how she sets boundaries to her work, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
References
- Editorial Articles
- A Study on Marketing Strategies for Self-Published Authors through Online Platforms
- A study on the market and competitor analysis for hospitality industry
- Cleaning chemicals usage for house keeping with special reference to hospitality industry: a study
- Rural Marketing Scenario in India -The Online Village Ahead | Harsha Sheelam (2020)
- Tutorial in CR: Process Theorization in Cultural Consumer Research by Giesler and Thompson
- Alternative ways of seeking Knowledge in Consumer Research by Hudson and Ozanne
In today's episode, we first do a general update on what we are working on, as well as what is going well and what we identify as our current struggles.
Then, we answer the following questions that came in through Instagram and Twitter:
- How to do qual analysis in Nvivo?
- How easy is it to settle down in a different country other than the one where you’d obtained your PhD?
- Which apps and computer programs do you use daily?
We round off with the best books we've read so far in 2022, and what we have been listening to this year.
References
- The dark side of transformational leadership
- Nvivo
- Atlas
- Ep. 64: Moving internationally for the PhD
- AcademicTransfer website: Academic jobs & PhD positions in the Netherlands
- Mendeley
- R
- Todoist
- Calendly
- Matlab
- Evernote
- Endnote
- Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
- Making time to write - Cathy Mazak
- Milkman - Anna Burns
- Quantitude
- Before Breakfast
- Amorphis
In today's episode, we interview Zama Dlamini. Zama is a PhD candidate at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa, working in the fields of gender and religion. She is also a mother of four and entered the PhD at a later stage in life.
We learn about Zama's research, and how her background as a Lay minister informed her research topic, and her current work. We touch upon the PhD at her university, and the difference between the full-time and part-time program. Zama tells us about her experience as an academic mother working on her PhD (during COVID-19).
We round off with our questions on the best advice for PhD candidates, the impact of COVID-19, how to set boundaries, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
- Zama on LinkedIn
- Zama on Twitter
- Zama's supervisor
- Mercy Oduyoye - African theologist
- Article about Mercy Oduyoye, the mother of African feminist theology
- Ujamaa NGO
- University of Kwazulu-Natal
- Feeling like an imposter - Ep. 26
-
1000wordsaday
- Madoda Sabelani!: Engaging Indigenous Music in the Fight Against Toxic Masculinities and Gender-Based Violence in South Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis
- Faith leaders prepare to become agents of transformation to bring an end to gender based violence
- Parenting children with learning challenges
- Feminist intersectionality and the matrix of domination in South Africa
- ´Deliver us from patriarchy´: a gendered perspective of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa and implications for pastoral care
- Gender-Based Violence, Twin Pandemic to COVID-19
As Sarah is preparing to attend and present at her first conference, she asks Eva for advice on how to prepare for the conference. We discuss what we can set as goals for presenting research at a conference, as well as what makes an excellent conference presentation. Eva recommends to spend sufficient time on the introduction and to think about the "take home" message.
We then look at how Eva prepares for a conference, both in terms of the practical aspects as in terms of preparing the presentation. Eva also gives her advice for PhD students preparing to attend their first conference.
Then, we look at the difference between big conferences with a broad topic and small conferences with a more focused group of attendees. Finally, we look at how many conferences Eva was attending before COVID, and how her conference attendance has changed as she became a mother as well as how the CO2 footprint of flying has changed her attitudes towards conference attendance.
In today's episode, we interview Martyne Farris, who is an instructor of anthropology and PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research combines anthropology, public policy, education, and linguistics to explore the barriers refugee women experience after they arrive in Canada. Both she and her husband are international PhD students in Canada, and they have a 1-year and 4-year old.
We learn about Martyne's experience as an international student in Canada and why they decided to move from the US to Canada for their PhDs. We also discuss her experiences as an academic mother. We also learn more about how she divides her time between teaching and her research, as well as what the program looks like at her university.
Ultimately, we learn about what a day in the life looks like for Martyne, how she sets boundaries to work, what her best advice for PhD students is, and how COVID-19 impacted her daily tasks.
References
- University of Saskatchewan
- Admission process for InterD program
- Government-funded language program
- ABD
- Comprehensive exam
- Feeling like an imposter - Ep. 26
- InterD work with Elizabeth Fry Society
- SSHRC funding at U of S
- Saskatchewan LINC information
In today's episode, we learn from Sarah's experience in writing the literature review of her research proposal: how she found references, how she organized her reading, how she combined the concepts, and what she learned from the process.
We then zoom out and discuss some of the common challenges students face when writing the literature review, the types of structures of the literature review that exist, and in which occasions we write literature reviews.
References
- Ep. 38 From reading the literature to writing the literature review
- Ep. 14 - Reading the literature
- Ep. 17 - Systematic Literature Reviews
- Google scholar
- PsyArXiv
- Researchgate
- Zotero
- Mendeley
Another announcement: Anna Clemens (from Ep. 54) and Eva will be organizing a live webinar on May 12th 11am Eastern time. Learn more about the webinar here.
In today's episode, we interview Saima Khan. She is a PhD Scholar in Global Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan; a teacher of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies, GCU Lahore, Pakistan. Her areas of interest and research are multidisciplinary; including Postcolonial theories, Feminism in South Asia, Philosophy of education, Cultural History, Political Philosophy, Gender Empowerment, Global Studies, Human Rights and Muslim world, and Cultural Philosophy/Philosophy of Culture. Her PhD research is examining applicability of Girls’ Education as a Global Idea on Postcolonial society of Pakistan. She is exploring the oppressed Global Image of Pakistani women, and how this representation is leading to collective suffering of all women of Pakistan. She is also the mother of two young daughters.
We learn from Saima about her meandering academic path, and how she ended up in the PhD program at Sophia University in Japan. We also learn how she has been dividing her time between Japan and Pakistan, and the choices she made along the way to balance her roles as a mother and a scholar. We also get an insight in the PhD program in Japan, as well as Saima's experience as an academic parent. Based on her experience as an academic mother, Saima shares what she has learned that works for her as an academic parent, and a PhD candidate.
References
- Feminism: Manifestation of Power in Colonial Context
- Empowerment of Women through Education - Emancipation or Enslavement? A Case Study of Pakistani Women
- Womanhood in Pakistan: Role of Nationalism, Islam and Colonial Legacy
- Follow Saima on Twitter
- Sophia University graduate programs
Another announcement: Anna Clemens (from Ep. 54) and Eva will be organizing a live webinar on May 12th 11am Eastern time. Learn more about the webinar here.
In today's episode, we talk about moving internationally for our studies. Sarah moved from Canada to the Netherlands for her Master's and is now doing her PhD in Belgium, and Eva moved from Belgium to the USA for her second Master's and then to the Netherlands for her PhD - so we both have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of moving internationally.
We discuss the reasons for selecting a program abroad for studies, the differences in approaches to the PhD in North America as compared to Belgium and the Netherlands, and what to consider when moving abroad - there certainly are financial and administrative hurdles to take along the way.
References:
- AcademicTransfer, a website for academics who want to transfer to a position in the Netherlands
- Eva's blog post about moving to the Netherlands
- Eva's blog post about moving to Ecuador
In today's episode, we interview Ed Southall, a maths curriculum designer at Oak National Academy and a teacher trainer at the University of Hudderfield in England, as well as doctoral candidate.
We talk about Ed's doctoral journey, alongside his work - first in academia, and then outside of academia. We learn about his decision to quit his PhD, and then his decision to continue and his efforts to finish by June 2023. We also learn about his experience as an academic parent, and his experience during the pandemic. As our first guest from the UK, Ed also explains us about the PhD trajectory and requirements in the UK.
We round off our interview with our standard questions on best advice, setting boundaries to work, how COVID-19 has changed his job and daily tasks, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
- University of Huddersfield
- Find Ed on Twitter
- Oak National Academy
- Scrivener
In today's episode, we discuss writing and defining the research question. We start from Sarah's experience in defining the research question for the proposal she worked on, and what she learned from this experience.
We then discuss various topics related to the research question: how to be specific enough, how to tie the research question to the available methods, how to spot the gap in the literature, and some requirements for writing a good research question.
Finally, we look at Eva's experience with the research question: how she defined the research question for her PhD, how she defines research questions for proposals, and how she advises graduate students on defining their research questions.
References
- The episode about Sarah's research proposal (Ep. 56)
- Replication crisis
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jamiella Brooks , a Black mother-scholar, the first person in her immediate family to learn a new language and pursue a doctoral degree, who occupies the multiplicitous spaces of wife, daughter, and descendant. She has a PhD in Francophone Literature in 2018, and is now at the University of Pennsylvania, where she focuses on programming and support for equitable and inclusive teaching practices. She teaches alternating years in the Linguistics and French departments.
In this episode, we learn about her research and her work on inclusive teaching practices, her academic parenting story, and how we can move towards (social) justice on campus. We also learn about her best advice for PhD candidates, what a day in the life looks like for her, how COVID-19 impacted her work and daily tasks, and how she sets boundaries to work.
References:
- Find Jamiella on Twitter
- “Dissertating while Parenting—Not a Contradiction”
- “Academia Is Violence-Generatives from a First Generation, Low-Income PhD Mother of Color
- Academia is violence book - table of contents
- Anticolonial Pedagogy
- Dr. Sarah Perrault
- Written Unwritten - The unwritten rules of academia
- Black Academics Guide to Winning Tenure Without Losing Your Soul
- So what question
- Prose poem “the pandemic is a portal”
- University of Pennsylvania Center for Teaching and Learning
- Academia doesn’t support parents at any level: twitter thread
- The institution will not love you back: twitter thread
In today's episode, we start off with a general update on what we are currently working on, what is going well, and what is not going well. We go into some side tangents on differences in supervision (and writing) of MSc students and PhD candidates, as well as which student writing requires most cognitive effort. We also discuss how we concentrate (or not) when difficult events such as the death of a loved one or the war in Ukraine consumer our headspace.
Then, we delve into three listener questions that we received. The first question is about how to become the editor or member of the editorial board of a journal. We discuss three ways in which you can approach this.
The second question is about academic and non-academic jobs after the PhD. We look at the perspective of life circumstances, as well as how the difference between these jobs in engineering is rather limited. We also learn from Sarah about her choice to return to academia.
The third question asked for our best tips for productive academic writing. We address this question both from the perspective of a doctoral candidate who may struggle with the writing process as well as a faculty member who may struggle with finding time for writing.
In today's episode, we interview Brianna Henson. Brianna works for Equus Workforce Solutions and is responsible for the operations and management of the Kentucky Career Centers within Greater Louisville, and is an EdD candidate at Liberty University. She is also the mom of of Audra (17 months), Ira (will be born in June), and step mom of Eli (11), and disabled veteran.
In today's interview, you will learn more about Brianna's winding career path, as well as what it is like to do an EdD degree, and what it is like to undertake doctoral education in an online setting. We also learn from Brianna about her experiences as an academic mother with a full-time job, and how she has been making choices along the way.
Finally, we also learn about Brianna's typical day, her advice to talk to faculty and staff when you are a doctoral candidate, her insights on setting boundaries to work, and how she transitioned from an academic staff position to her current job.
References
- Brianna's Twitter profile
- Brianna's research: Introduction to a Programmatic Approach to Health Disparities and Cultural Competency Training in Pharmacy Education
- Brianna's research: A Systematic Review of Assessment Tools Measuring Cultural Competence Outcomes Relevant to Pharmacy Education
- Brianna's research: Strategies for Incorporating Health Disparities and Cultural Competency Training into the Pharmacy Curriculum and Co-curriculum
- Brianna's research: A Call to Action for a Programmatic Approach to Cultural Competency in Pharmacy Education
- Brianna's research: Current State and Opportunities for Enhancing Peer Evaluation Practices Across the Pharmacy Academy
- Brianna's research: Engaging in Authentic Allyship As Part of Our Professional Development
- US News college rankings
- Dr. Jeffrey Cain from the University of Kentucky
- AACP American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
- Liberty university - online EdD program
In today's episode, we interview Rima Kaddoura. She is a PhD in Epidemiology candidate at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and mother a three-year-old boy. As a PhD candidate in Lebanon and academic mom, she has faced major difficulties: a revolution, economic collapse, deterioration of basic infrastructure, the Beirut blast, and COVID-19.
We learn about Rima's career path, her research - and how her research has been affected by the recent events in her country. We also learn about what it is like to do a PhD in Lebanon, and what the requirements for the part-time PhD program at AUB are. We also learn from Rima's experience as an academic parent, and how she has been able to balance her work, part-time PhD studies, and parenting. Finally, we hear her best advice for PhD candidates, what a day in the life looks like, her way of setting boundaries to work, and the impact of COVID-19.
References
- American University of Beirut - AUB
- Comprehensive exam
- Thesis proposal
- Find Rima on Twitter
- MS Thesis Publication
- Relevant reference for PhD project
- Lebanon’s economic crisis explained
In this episode, we discuss the difference between a paper-based thesis and a long-book thesis. We look at some of the differences in expectations for the doctoral thesis internationally, and discuss the link between these differences between countries and how the doctoral trajectory is considered: as the time for junior researcher to work, or as an apprenticeship.
We then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the paper-based and the long-book thesis. Finally, we look at Eva's experience writing a long-book thesis, the time it takes to write and edit a thesis, and the skills one learns during the writing of journal articles and writing of a long-book thesis.
References
- Responding to reviewer comments - Ep. 42
- Writing a first journal article - Ep. 34
- Eva's thesis time tracking
In today's episode, we focus on Sarah's experience writing a research proposal for the FWO. We learn about the requirements for applying to these funding opportunities, the different streams at which one can apply, and the procedures involved. Then, we move to Sarah's personal experience with writing a research proposal for the first time: what she learned from the experience, what she wished she'd known before, and what is coming next.
In the second half of the episode, we look at other types and functions of a research proposal: the proposal as part of the doctoral trajectory at universities in the USA, as well as Eva's experience in applying for funding for research from various sources.
References
- FWO funding
- EU funding lottery comparison
- PDeng program
- Funding in Canada - Ep. 9
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Mira Vasic. She is the co-owner and senior partner of InTouch, a female leadership and career academy. Originally from Serbia, she obtained her PhD in structural engineering in Italy and worked in the Netherlands in the applied research institute TNO and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Dutch government, before making a career switch.
Listen to this interview to learn how Mira's core values made her study civil engineering, and how the same values then were at the basis of her career switch. We also learn from Mira on how PhD candidates need a sponsor to succeed in their career, as well as her best advice for female PhD candidates and faculty members. Finally, we learn how Mira sets boundaries around her work, her best advice for PhD candidates, what a week in the life looks like, and how COVID-19 has impacted her work and daily tasks.
References
- InTouch
- Linkedin profile
- 5 Unwritten Rules We Must Change in Higher Ed - Mira Vasic on Harvard Business:
Why women remain silent on microagressions at the workplace - Mira Vasic on Thrive Global - Annotated bibliography on unconscious gender bias in academia
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Anna Clemens, who went from a PhD in chemistry to a career as an academic writing coach. We learn about her research, how she discovered her love for writing during her PhD, how she switched to writing for a living, editing, and then working as a writing coach. We also learn her best tips for academic writing with the principle of the 3 Cs.
We discuss the barriers PhD candidates and faculty face when it comes to writing, and how we can dissolve these barriers. Finally, we learn about Anna's best tips for PhD candidates in general, a day (or rather: week) in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on her work, and how to set boundaries to work. Check in for a fun conversation on academic writing!
References:
- Website of Dr. Anna Clemens
- Free 1h training
- Follow Anna on Twitter
- Exhaust processing of lorries
- Licentiate thesis in Sweden
- Ep. 34: Writing a journal paper
- Ep. 42: Addressing reviewers' comments
Today's episode is the first one of Season 2! As Rico is focusing on finalizing his PhD, we will continue this podcast in a new setting, with Sarah Cameron as the new cohost of the PhD Talk podcast.
In this episode, Eva interviews Sarah, so our listeners get to know the new cohost. Sarah returned to graduate school after a few years working in headhunting, and she shares the story of this international transition in today's episode. She also has excellent advice on how to select a PhD program
Finally, we round off with our standard questions on the best advice for PhD candidates, a day in the life, setting boundaries, and the impact of COVID-19.
References:
- Work and organizational psychology - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Queen's university
- Leadership and change management program at VU Amsterdam
- PhD portfolio of VUB
- Gathertown for coworking
Today, we interview Christine Streeter, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the School of Social Work, with a specialization in Political Economy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. As a social worker committed to improving insecure working conditions for care workers in the social work and social services work sector, her research explores precarious work and safety at work. Christine shares her PhD journey through her blog and Instagram @ScholarCulture where she aims to create a space for grad students to push back on the culture of overwork in academia and bring more life to their academic lifestyle.
We discuss her scholarly work as well her blog and Instagram profile, and how these have grown over the years. We then also discuss how PhD candidates can start a blog or become more visible on social media, and the benefits this may have for their PhD trajectory and career. Since Scholar Culture as a blog and Instagram account also focuses on putting the "life" back into the scholarly life, we also hear Christine's tips on incorporating life into graduate school. We round off with our typical questions on a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19, setting boundaries, and best advice.
References
- Blog Scholar Culture
- Instagram @ScholarCulture
- Affect theory
- Focus group interviews
- Mitacs accelerator grant
- Dr. Susan Braedley
- Dr. Pat Armstrong
- Episode with Christina Shenvi
In today's episode, we interview Deborah Navarro Rosenblatt, who works at the Ministry of Health of Chile at the evidence informed health policy unit and is doing her PhD in public health at the University of Chile.
In this episode, our main topic is being an academic parent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Deborah has a 4-year-old daughter. We also reflect on what has changed in being a PhD candidate who is a parent from before the pandemic.
Another topic that we touch upon is the PhD in Chile. We learn about some particularities of the system in Chile, and how Deborah combines her PhD research with her position in the Ministry.
Finally, we round off with Deborah's best advice, her "day in a life", and setting boundaries around work.
References
- Twitter handle
- Work life balance episode - Ep. 46
- Doctoral defense in Chile
- Deborah's review article on maternity leave and breastfeeding
- Deborah's news article on breastfeeding as a human right
- Deborah's news article on the promotion of breastfeeding
- University of Chile
- Breastfeeding initiation and duration in Chile: understanding the social and health determinants
- Breastfeeding in the 21st century, discussion, and authors' reply
- Why invest, and what it will take to improve breastfeeding practices?
- Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development
We recorded a Q&A episode a while back in the middle of the Fall semester, but only got to publishing it now as we slowed down to one episode every other week. In this episode, we give a general update on how our Fall semester is going so far, as well as what we currently are working on.
In the next part of the episode, we discuss a few questions that came in. The first question is about the social media platforms we use for our research, and why. We discuss ResearchGate, LinkedIn, and Twitter for research. The second question is about how we switch tasks after lecturing, as we all know and experienced that lecturing is quite intensive. We also discuss there the various tasks that are involved with preparing teaching, and some digital tools one can incorporate.
We then dive into a question that could be an episode in itself: strategies for selecting the right journal or conference for your PhD results. We share our best practices here, but of course, please always discuss with your supervisor. Finally, we discuss how to select a PhD program, and certain differences internationally.
References
- Edpuzzle
- Quizziz
- Padlet
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Cindy Harley, Associate Professor of Biology at Metropolitan State University in St Paul, MN. First of all, we learn about Cindy's career path, and how her career path is interwoven with the stage of life in which she had her son. We then dive deeper into her research, and learn about her research on leeches.
The main topic of today's episode is on being an academic parent. We discuss both how having a child changed some of Cindy's attitude towards work and towards learning, as well as the general fate of academic parents, and how the Academic Mama foundation, of which Cindy is the president, makes a positive impact in the lives of academic parents.
Finally, we round off with our standard questions on best advice, the impact of COVID-19, setting boundaries, and a day in the life.
References
- Cindy Harley's website
- Cindy Harley's Twitter
- Academic Mamas website
- Histology
- Academic mamas facebook
- 501c3
- IAMAS maternal action scholarship
- The enough list
We've been talking about open science and open access publishing in previous interviews, but today we wanted to evaluate if we practice what we preach.
We identify various parts of our research that we've made more open: publishing our databases or research data online, using available datasets. We also discuss how we are moving towards more open access publishing, the role of open peer review, the importance of preprints, and how Eva's attitudes towards open access have changed over time. Eva also makes a plug for ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierias, the open access science and engineering journal which does not cover an article processing charge of which Eva is the editor in chief. Based on that, we also get into the role of universities as publishing houses in Latin America, and the indexing services Redalyc and Amelica.
Another topic we discuss is the role of funding agencies in their requests to make research more open, as well as open access goals set by universities to encourage more open access publication.
Finally, we discuss the parts of our research we have not made open yet, such as code and moving towards more open source software.
References:
- Episode 25: Open Science
- Episode 29: Open Access Publishing
- Zenodo
- Open Science MOOC organized by Jon Tennant
- Pacific earthquake engineering research center - structural performance database
- Preprints.org
- arXiv.org
- Plan S Europe
- Amelica
- Redalyc
- Postprints
- TRI agencies Canada - within 12 months of publication
- Inkscape
- Openfoam
- Opensees
- Elizabeth Jones’ DIC code in matlab
- ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierias
In today's episode of the PhD Talk podcast, we interview Dr. Veronika Cheplygina, associate professor at IT University Copenhagen in Denmark, blogger, and cat lover. We learn about Veronika's career path, and how academia has been pushing her away as well as pulling her back, and how she found her current position. We also learn about her research in machine learning, and the applications to medical imaging, as well as some current criticisms on this field of research.
We then go into Veronika's work on failure in academia - through her series of interviews on "How I fail" on her blog, her own "failures", and what she learned from opening the conversation on failure in academia, and how the notion of failure has shifted from (paper) rejections to the larger notion of being not in line with our values. Finally, we discuss academic Twitter, and the benefits Veronika has enjoyed of academic Twitter. We then round off the interview with our standard questions on setting boundaries, best advice, a day in the life, and the impact of COVID-19.
References
- Website of Veronika Cheplygina
- Twitter profile
- PhD thesis Dissimilarity-based Multiple Instance Learning
- Seven things Veronika wished she'd done during her PhD
- Talk by Veronika on her career path
- Cal Newport - Deep Work
- Interview with Marissa Edwards on Mental Health in Academia
In this episode, we discuss the topic of work-life balance. First, we look at findings from the literature on this topic, which Eva has used to write an encyclopedia entry about (and since this entry is a tiny part of a large project, it will take time before it will see the light of publication).
We look at findings from the literature on work-life balance satisfaction in general, the history of the topic, and findings on work-life balance in higher education, with a special focus on the groups who report the lowest levels of work-life balance satisfaction and on the classed, racialized, and gendered dimensions of work-life balance and work-life satisfaction.
Finally, we discuss our experience of work-life balance, our successes and struggles, and how work-life balance in academia can be improved.
References
- Armstrong, J. 2006. "Beyond 'juggling' and 'flexibility': Classed and gendered experiences of combining employment and motherhood." Sociological Research Online 11 (2):119-134. doi: 10.5153/sro.1277.
- Beigi, M., M. Shirmohammadi, and S. Kim. 2016. "Living the academic life: A model for work-family conflict." Work 53 (3):459-468. doi: 10.3233/WOR-152173.
- Blazovich, J. L., K. T. Smith, and L. Murphy Smith. 2018. "Mother-friendly companies, work-life balance, and emotional well-being: Is there a relationship to financial performance and risk level?" International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion 9 (4):303-321. doi: 10.1504/IJWOE.2018.097153.
- Dilmaghani, Maryam, and Vurain Tabvuma. 2019. "The gender gap in work–life balance satisfaction across occupations." Gender in Management: An International Journal 34 (5):398-428. doi: 10.1108/GM-09-2018-0109.
- Johnston, E., and A. Johnson. 2017. "Balancing life and work by unbending gender: Early American women psychologists’ struggles and contributions." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 53 (3):246-264. doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21862.
- Kachchaf, R., A. Hodari, L. Ko, and M. Ong. 2015. "Career-Life Balance for Women of Color: Experiences in Science and Engineering Academia." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 8 (3):175-191. doi: 10.1037/a0039068.
- Keeney, Jessica, Elizabeth M. Boyd, Ruchi Sinha, Alyssa F. Westring, and Ann Marie Ryan. 2013. "From “work–family” to “work–life”: Broadening our conceptualization and measurement." Journal of Vocational Behavior 82 (3):221-237. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.01.005.
- Kim, R. Y. 2020. "An unforeseen story of alpha-woman: breadwinner women are more likely to quit the job in work-family conflicts." Applied Economics 52 (55):6009-6021. doi: 10.1080/00036846.2020.1781775.
- Moreau, Marie-Pierre, and Murray Robertson. 2019. "‘You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours’? Support to Academics Who Are Carers in Higher Education." Social Sciences 8 (6):164.
- Pasamar, S., K. Johnston, and J. Tanwar. 2020. "Anticipation of work–life conflict in higher education." Employee Relations 42 (3):777-797. doi: 10.1108/ER-06-2019-0237.
- Powell, Gary N., Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Tammy D. Allen, and Russell E. Johnson. 2019. "Introduction to Special Topic Forum: Advancing and Expanding Work-Life Theory from Multiple Perspectives." Academy of Management Review 44 (1):54-71. doi: 10.5465/amr.2018.0310.
- Thun, C. 2020. "Excellent and gender equal? Academic motherhood and ‘gender blindness' in Norwegian academia." Gender, Work and Organization 27 (2):166-180. doi: 10.1111/gwao.12368.
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Lena Karvovskaya. Lena did herPhD in theoretical linguistics at Leiden University. After her PhD, she took up a job as a data manager at Utrecht University Library and then went to the library of VU Amsterdam to become a community manager for research data management.
We learn from Lena's research on endangered languages during her Master's studies and her work on possession in languages during her PhD. We also look at the role of a community manager within the modern university library, and the changing role of the library in the university. A third topic of the episode is data management: common pitfalls novice researchers should avoid, tips for current doctoral candidates, and tips for their advisors.
Finally, we round off with our standard questions on the impact of COVID-19 on the Lena's daily tasks, her best advice for PhD candidates, a day in the life, and how to set boundaries to work.
References
- Lena’s Twitter profile
- Endangered languages: Sorbian, Saami languages, Ishkashimi
- Lena’s PhD Thesis: The typology and formal semantics of adnominal possession
- Podcast episode 29: Open access
- Podcast episode 25: Open science
- VU systematic reviews
- Podcast episode 17: Systematic reviews
- VU Data Conversations
- Data steward at VU Amsterdam
- More about Data stewards in the Netherlands, for example at TU Delft
- Data management at VU Amsterdam
- Data management at Utrecht University
- VU Data horror week
- Data horror stories collected in 2020
- A blog post about Data Horror Escape Room
- Play the Data Horror Escape Room at your own pace
In today's episode, Rico interviews Eva on the research she did with a group of international colleagues on the impact of COVID-19 on academic parents.
We discuss the main findings of the research, that show that the negative impact on the research of academic parents is considerable, that most academic parents found more challenges than opportunities, and that associate professors are dealing with COVID-19 on top of the mid-career minefield. Another interesting finding is that both academic mothers and fathers have experienced negative impacts, even though academic mothers worked on average less hours but the gender differences related to time expenditure were larger before the pandemic than during. We also look into some regional differences, such as the larger fear to send children back to school in Central and South America than in other parts of the world.
Besides the findings, we also discuss the methodology: how Eva assembled the international research team, how the team held Zoom meetings across many time zones to discuss the findings, and the quantitative and qualitative analysis methods that we selected for this work.
Then, we turn in to Eva's personal experience as an academic parent during COVID-19, and see if her personal experience is in line with the findings in the paper, and what the main challenges were. We also look at the particular support measures Eva's two universities provided, and how she used these (or not). Then, we round off discussing how COVID-19 will affect academic parents in the future and if we can take positive lessons from this experience into the future.
References:
- Lantsoght EOL, Tse Crepaldi Y, Tavares SG, Leemans K and Paig-Tran EWM (2021) Challenges and Opportunities for Academic Parents During COVID-19. Front. Psychol. 12:645734. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645734
- WonkHe: How to support academic parents to succeed
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: The Challenges of Parenting and Academia
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jennifer Polk, who has a PhD in history (2012) and has been working as a career coach and consultant since 2013. She is an expert on the challenges PhDs face transitioning to employment.
We learn from Jen how she went from being a PhD in history to a career coach, and what her research back then has in common with the work she does nowadays. She explains us the different steps one should go through when starting to think about a career after the PhD (spoiler alert: self-reflection is incredibly important).
We also talk about what supervisors and universities can do to give more attention to life after the PhD during graduate school, and hear Jen's recommendations for books with career advice.
Finally, we talk about a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on Jen's work, how she sets boundaries to work, and her best advice for PhD candidates.
Where to find Jennifer Polk online
- Website
- Facebook Page
- University Affairs blog
- Newsletter (the PhD Career Clarity course will be announced through the newsletter)
- Degrees of Success
Reading recommendations
- What color is your parachute (updated by Katherine Brooks)
- Karen Kelsky - The Professor is In
- Hillary Hutchinson - Scaling the ivory tower
- Leaving academia - Christopher Catherine
- So what are you going to do with that? - Susan Basalla
- Career advice blogs on Inside Higher Ed
- Carpe Career column
- Jennifer’s curated reading list
Other resources mentioned in this episode
- Lauren Easterling - list of jobs / career paths in biomedical sciences
- Council of graduate schools
- Canadian association of graduate studies
- CAGS' Upcoming conference: Care, Social justice, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies
- Graduate career consortium
- GPDN Graduate and Professional Development Network
In today's episode, we discuss Rico's experience in replying to the comments of the reviewers on his first journal article.
We discuss the timeline between submission and receiving the comments, as well as what one can expect from various journals here. We also discuss the time it takes to implement reviewer comments and write the rebuttal, as well as the process Rico and his colleagues followed. Their approach (and what Eva uses) is based on working through the comments sequentially, but other authors may prefer to work by topic.
Rico's paper got comments from five reviewers, and we discuss how common it is to receive comments from this many reviewers. We also delve into the way a rebuttal can be formatted - the Excel template Rico used, as well as the Word file with different styles of formatting that Eva uses.
We round of this episode with Rico's lessons learned and best practices.
References
- Previous episode on writing a journal article
- How not to be reviewer 2
- When reviewers want you to cite their work
- Reviewers’ comments
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Marissa Edwards from the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland, Australia. One of the topics she has worked on, is mental health and well-being in students and educators, which is the main topic of today's episode.
Join us to learn more about Marissa's research on whistle-blowing, medical negligence, and mental health and well-being in students and educators. We dive deep into the topics on mental health in academia: where the current problems come from, and what we can do to improve the situation.
Finally, we learn about Marissa's best advice for PhD supervisors and PhD candidates, the influence of COVID-19 on her daily tasks, and a typical day in the life.
Where to find Marissa online:
- University profile
- Voices of Academia blog & Twitter
Marissa's research
- How Perceptions and Emotions Shaped Employee Silence in the Case of “Dr. Death” at Bundaberg Hospital
- Publications on Google Scholar
- Journal of Management Education - editorial
- Emotions and failure in academic life
- Social and Emotional Learning in Graduate School to Improve Student Well-Being and Performance: A Proposed Training Program
- Supporting student psychological well-being in the I-O psychology classroom
Additional resources
- Medical negligence
- Dr. Death
- Journal of Management Education
- Special Issue: “Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being Among Management Students and Educators”
- PhD balance
- Cactus mental health
- Dragonfly mental wellness
- Brene Brown - Daring Greatly, The Gifts of Imperfection, Rising Strong, Dare to Lead
In today's episode, we address a number of questions that our listeners sent in through Twitter and other sources. Here's a list of topics we touched upon in this mixed mailbag episode:
- our current work,
- our summer goals, and how much of it we achieved,
- our plans for the fall semester,
- our potential plans for conference travel,
- leaving industry to start working on research, and what that means in terms of salary,
- a week in the life of PhD candidacy,
- any preconceived ideas we had about the PhD or academia that turned out not to be true,
- skills every PhD candidate should have, and
- our favorite books read in 2021 so far
We are happy to receive your questions and answer these in a future Q&A episode!
Reference
- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python - Al Sweigart + Udemy course
- Summer goals post
- Corry Doctorow - Walkaway
- Maya Angelou - I know why the caged bird sings
- Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
- Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Ashley Hughes, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Research Health Scientist at the Edward Hines JR VA Medical Center. She received her doctoral degree in Applied Experimental Human Factors Psychology in 2016 and Masters in Modeling and Simulation in 2013 from the University of Central Florida. Her research extends human factors in health informatics to improve work processes, such as technology uptake and data use, to enhance coordination of care. Her work is widely published, is currently funded by NIH institutes, and her work is recognized by various local and national awards.
We discuss Ashley's research on the use (and barriers to use) of technology in medicine, as well as some of the surprising findings from her work and link to physician burnout.
The main portion of the episode is dedicated to the topic of student debt: how to avoid student debt by getting PhD funding, the long-term consequences of student debt, as well as the experience of Ashley herself, and her observations on what has changed between when she did her PhD and today. We also discuss her best advice with regard to funding the PhD for current and future PhD candidates, as well as their supervisors.
Finally, we round off with our general questions on setting boundaries, the influence of COVID-19 on her work and daily tasks, and what a day in the life looks like for Ashley (and the role of coffee in a day in the life).
Where to find Ashley Hughes and her work online
- Ashley’s university profile
- Google scholar profile
- Researchgate profile
- Twitter profile
References to topics discussed
- Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2019.
- Electronic Health Record Usability Issues and Potential Contribution to Patient Harm - Howe et al. 2018
- Kaiser Health News - Death by a thousand clicks
- The T32 and Individual awards: from NIH and from NSF
- Loan repayment plan
In today's episode we continue on the topic of the literature review. In previous episodes, we discussed our reading habits, and today we take a deeper dive into what comes after reading all these interesting articles: writing the literature review. This episode focuses on writing the literature review section for a journal article as well as writing the literature review chapter of the PhD thesis.
We discuss several ways of processing the information from the articles we read, and how to structure this information into a coherent review. We also discuss what literature reviews are not, and some common pitfalls in writing a literature review. We round off with a discussion on what is important in writing a literature review, and some tips from the perspective of a reviewer and journal editor.
References
- Episode 14: Reading the literature
- Episode 16: How to search for articles
- Episode 17: Systematic reviews: interview with Jonathan Guillemot
- Endnote
- Zotero
- Mendeley
- Papers
- Bibtex
- Raul Pacheco-Vega: Delving into an entirely new topic and doing a literature review, performed with an example (on hospital ethnography)
- Raul Pacheco-Vega: Writing your literature review based on the “Cross-Reference” column of the Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump (CSED)
- Raul Pacheco-Vega: Literature reviews, annotated bibliographies and conceptual synthetic tables
- PhD Talk: Organizing your literature review
- PhD Talk: Top 3 tips for literature review success
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Hao-Ting Wang. She is a Postdoc Fellow at University of Sussex and Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Originally from Taiwan, she completed her BSc in Psychology in National Chengchi University, and then a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at University of York, UK. Her work involves brain-behavioral phenotypes discovery using functional MRI in large open access datasets. Working with large neuroimaging datasets ignited her interests in computation reproducibility. She is an active contributor of Python libraries Nilearn, Nibabel and Pydra.
We discuss her career path and recent research, as well as how she gained her interest in machine learning throughout her research. We get an insight in her findings on what our brain does while our mind is wandering.
The main topic of today's episode is how to finance PhD studies, and the government loan that Hao-Ting used for this purpose. We also discuss the long-term implications of taking a loan for studies, and how this choice influenced the daily life and activities available to Hao-Ting.
Finally, we round off with our standard questions on boundary settings, day in the life, impact of COVID-19 and best advice.
References
- Hao-Ting's github
- Hao-Ting's Twitter
- Hao-Ting's Google Scholar
- Python
- Bored and Brilliant
- Default mode network
- Task negative
- Brainhack collaborative
- ERC grants
In today's episode, we discuss how to select the right journal for your article.
When it comes to selecting a journal, we discuss how to get the right advice and which tools you can use to decide where to send your article.
We also discuss other topics to consider when selecting a journal: time to decision, indexation, copyright, open access, and other aspects that can be important for you to make a decision.
We then round off with a discussion with our best tips for making your article as suitable as possible for the journal you have selected - from carefully checking scope and audience to practical tips such as using the right template.
References
- Elsevier journal finder
- JANE
- AmeliCA
- Sherpa/ Romeo
- Redalyc
- Scopus
- ISI Web of Science
In today's episode of the podcast, we interview Horacio Perez Sanchez, who is a professor in Spain and host of the podcast Investigando la investigacion. He is the principal investigator of the "Bioinformatics and High Performance Computing" Research Group at the Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia.
We talk about his background, and current research. We also learn how much computing power his research requires, and how he finds this computing power available - methods that currently are popular and methods that were used in the past.
We also learn more about academia in Spain, and what Horacio's days typically look like, as well as how becoming a parent changed his working style.
References
- Investigando la investigacion
- Research group website
- Free bioinformatics tools
- Time blocking
- Getting things done
- Trello
- Asana
- Weekly review
- Lean management techniques
In today's episode, we discuss Rico's experience of writing his first journal article. We discuss how much of the research was done before Rico and his coauthors started writing the paper. We also learn about their co-creation process of writing in work sessions through videoconferencing.
Another topic we discuss is what Rico experienced as the easiest and hardest parts of the process, as well as how much time the group of authors took to write the article.
In addition, we discussed the steps of the manuscript submission system, and some particularities of some journals such as requiring a cover letter and suggesting reviewers.
We round off discussing what Rico might have done different in hindsight.
At the end of the episode, Rico asks Eva about her experience in writing her first journal paper, and what she remembers of the process. For Eva, writing the first paper was certainly a longer process than for Rico.
References
- Inkscape
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Don’t make these nine mistakes when you write a journal paper
- From PhD Thesis to Journal Papers
In today's episode, we interview David Cañarte, who recently got his PhD in the department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. David, who is originally from Ecuador, has a background in design and marketing. He has studied in Ecuador, the Netherlands, and the United States.
We talk about David's meandering career path, and how his path and his wife's path have developed over these years. We also learn about David's research on social networks of immigrants, and how he shifted to this topic. Then, we dive into the methods that David used during his doctoral research and discuss the tools he used for this purpose. We also learn the complications David faced for his data analysis as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, and how his work was impacted by the situation in his home country.
After managing to finish his PhD during the global pandemic, David was faced with the challenge of defending his doctoral research online. We learn his best tips for defending through videoconferencing.
Finally, we round off the interview with a discussion on how to set boundaries to work, and learn how academic couples can set boundaries together. We learn David's best advice for PhD candidates, and -closely related to setting boundaries- get a glimpse at the day in the life of David.
References
- Joseph O.Baker, David Cañarte,and L. Edward Day. 2018. “Race, Xenophobia, and Punitiveness Among the American Public” The Sociological Quarterly 59(3):363-383.
- Raffaele Vacca, David Cañarte & Tommaso Vitale (2021) Beyond ethnic solidarity: the diversity and specialisation of social ties in a stigmatised migrant minority, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1903305
- David's profile on the website of the University of Florida
- More about David's doctoral research in Spanish
- Follow David on Twitter
- How to prepare for a Zoom viva
- R
- Igraph
- Igor
In today's episode, we take a deep dive into the topic of research in difficult times. We look at how COVID-19 has impacted our research and how we work - a topic we've also previously discussed with our guests on the podcast. We discuss what worked to keep going, or how to keep doing some work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our best advice for dealing with difficult times is:
- Learn to take stock of the situation and acknowledge the difficulty of the situation
- Practice self-compassion
- Lean on the support that others can provide you
- Actively reach out to others to check in and see how they are doing
We round off our recording with some speculations on what the future of (tele)work may look like.
References
- Eva's course on research in difficult times
- PhD research in difficult times
- Life in times of COVID-19 in Ecuador
- Supporting PhD candidates during COVID-19
- COVID-19 and research
- Challenges and opportunities for international researchers during COVID-19
- Born to run - Christopher McDougall
- Self-compassion and diet research
- More research on self-compassion
In today's episode, we interview Baris Celik from the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. In his PhD research, Baris examines the crisis management operations of the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). We learned about the research of Baris, his findings with regard to what drives certain policy decisions in situations of international conflict, as well as how he conducted the semi-structured interviews for his research and how he found his research participants.
We also learn about how Baris has been combining research and teaching, and his best advice for those who embark on research using qualitative methods. We get an overview of what the timeline of the PhD looks like in politics in the UK. To round off the interview, we also learn how Baris sets boundaries to work, how COVID-19 has impacted his daily tasks, his best advice for PhD students, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
- Assistant Lecturer profile at the School of Politics & International Relations, University of Kent
- ORCID profile
- (2021). The “5,000-kilometre screwdriver”: German and French police training in Afghanistan through the EU and NATO, Global Affairs, (online first).
- (2020). Foreign policy decision-making in operational overlap: the UK’s policing assistance in Afghanistan through the EU and NATO, European Security 29(4), pp. 456-482.
- Baris' blog on research and teaching experiences
- Qualitative Research Guidelines Project: Semi-Structured Interviews
- Designing a semi-structured interview guide for qualitative interviews
In this episode, we address a variety of questions from listeners:
- How is research similar to content creation? (blog, podcast, Instagram)
- How have you seen academic parenting evolving through the years you've been in academia? I have the feeling that now it has become more accepted (comparing to when I was an undergrad)
- Which advice would you give your younger self?
We also discuss our plans for the summer, and ask each other the questions we've been asking our interviewees:
- What is your best piece of advice for PhD students?
- How has Covid-19 changed your job and daily tasks?
References
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser
- Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey
- On writing: A memoir of the craft by Stephen King
- Doing a PhD is Getting to Know Yourself - The Thesis Whisperer
- The quote about writing a long or short letter
We are back with another episode on Open Science. In this episode, we interview Frederique Belliard and Just de Leeuwe from the Delft University of Technology library on open access publishing: from the perspective of the TU Delft library which encourages researchers to publish open access and from the perspective of the TU Delft publishing house.
Listen to this episode to learn about how Frederique made the shift from research in an academic context to being in touch with research as a publisher, and how Just made the transition from working with information of the Rotterdam pollution maps to work as a librarian. You will also learn about their best advice for selecting an open access journal to publish your research, as well as important things to consider with regard to the copyright of your work.
In this episode, we also learn how to get started with open access publishing if your advisor may be hesitant, the best advice for PhD candidates from Frederique and Just, how COVID-19 impacted their daily tasks, and what a day in the life looks like for them.
References:
- Open access journal browser of TU Delft
- Beal’s list of predatory journals, archived version
- Think check submit
- DOAJ
- 4 TU repository for data
- MOOC
- TU Delft library website
- Zenodo (Eva’s database of shear in steel fiber reinforced concrete beams)
- TU Delft open publishing
- Open Access policy of TU Delft
- TU Delft Open Access Funding
- Open Access Publishing at TU Delft
- Open Access in the Netherlands
- The Informed Researcher, Course for PhD candidates at TU Delft
- Copyright advice
- TU Delft Open Access deals with publishers
- Research identity
- Archiving and digitizing
- How to publish data
- Plan S
In today's episode, we discuss our use of analog and digital tools. First, we discuss where we use analog tools and where we use digital tools. We then go into the advantages of these different tools. We also go off on a tangent on keyboard styles and how this influences how we type (and thus, how we write). Finally, we give some advice on how to select your tools for the purpose you have in mind, and how to come to systems that work for you.
The tiny voice in the background is Eva's daughter wanting to chip in today :)
References and links:
- Leuchtturm 1917
- Andaluz and Estilo notebooks
- Keeping your lab and research notes organized
- How to find your planning and project management tools
- What planning tools are most popular?
- Qwerty keyboard (check also the slightly different Spanish Latin American sort)
- Azerty keyboard
- Blue light-blocking glasses
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Nosipho Makhakhe from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She holds a PhD in humanities, more specifically in health promotion. We were eager to learn more about her use of qualitative methods and her research in particular.
You will learn in this episode more about Nosipho's research with sex workers, her recommendations for qualitative work in vulnerable communities, and the surprising findings of her research that came from truly listening to the sex workers and their stories. We also learned more about what it is like to do a PhD in South Africa, and their written form of the PhD defense. Finally, we also discuss how to set boundaries to work and protecting our mental health, get to learn about how COVID-19 impacted Nosipho's life and research, her best advice for PhD students, and what a day in the life looks like.
References
- Dr. Nosipho Makhakhe's publications
- Situation analysis
- Situation analysis in qualitative methods
- Focus groups
- How to use focus groups to evaluate your digital health product
- Interviews in qualitative research
- Co-creation in dialogue groups
- National research foundation (South Africa)
In today's episode, we discuss the so-called imposter syndrome, which is generally defined as having feelings of not deserving what you have achieved despite external evidence of the contrary. However, calling this feeling a "syndrome" actually pathologizing a rational reaction to being in a hierarchical, competitive place like a university, surrounded by high achievers (as Patter pointed out correctly).
With these definitions and observations in place, we embark on a personal episode, in which we touch upon when we have felt and feel like an imposter, when we feel a sense of not belonging, and similar but different experiences in academia. Besides discussing these feelings and experiences, as well as how they have changed over the years, we also discuss some tips that have helped us move forward even when facing such emotions.
References
- Imposter syndrome is not real, but I call mine Beryl (Thesis Whisperer)
- The top 5 PhD emotions (Thesis Whisperer)
- Two things that made me thing this week (Patter)
- Feeling like an imposter is not a syndrome
- Dr. Pauline Rose Clan´s work on this topic
- The Imposter Syndrome: Why successful people often feel like frauds by Hugh Kearns
Eva documented some of her observations on such feelings over the past on her blog:
- How I got tenure
- Surviving and thriving as a young female academic
- Performing for TEDxDelftSalon
- On where PhD research gets published
- Who am I to speak up
Today, we interview Anke Versteeg and Nicole Will from the library of Delft University of Technology to learn more about the topic of open science. We learn what we can do to contribute to open science, and learn how open science is much more than open access publishing, as well as where researchers can learn more about open science (for example the open science MOOC). Data management is key here!
Besides the concepts of open science, we also learn how librarians support researchers in their efforts to make their science more open. We also learn from the experience of Nicole and Anke who have worked with many researchers to get their best advice in moving towards open science, as well as their general recommendations for PhD researchers.
References
- A first introduction to open science
- Five answers to questions about FAIR DATA
- Five recommendations for FAIR Software
- Three perspectives on Open Science in research assessment
- TU Delft library website
- Open science MOOC
- TU Delft library resources for students
- TU Delft library resources for researchers
- Strategic Plan Open Science TU Delft 2020 - 2024
- Open Science community Delft:This is an international initiative; any university research community can become a member).
- Some of the open science MOOC material is available here
- Copyright clearance center
- Selecting the right creative commons license
- Differences in right retention in open access publishing
- Sherpa/Romeo for checking rights in open access publishing
- TU Delft library architecture
- TU Delft aula architecture
In this episode, we discuss our experience with online teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic. We share our best practices, and lessons learned.
Here's the summary of our tips:
Tips:
- Less is more, in terms of content and tech tools
- More than just reduce content: put kindness and compassion for students first
- Much more leniency with deadlines and evaluation strictness
- Flexibility with office hour time, and accommodate student in different time zones
- Be consistent in the way you compile your information
- Present the same material in different sensorial ways
- Reconsider your assessment methods
- Stick to one didactic model
- Have 3-5 learning objectives and keep those front and center
- Invest time in your didactic skills
- Ask your students, colleagues, and TAs for feedback
- Make sure you got your tech tools working well: lighting, microphone, drawing tools
Here are some references for this episode:
- From Eva's blog
- Poll on tools for online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Online resources for scientists
- Explorations into Blended Flexible Learning
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: challenges and opportunities for international researchers during COVID-19
- From elsewhere on the internet
- The 5Es instructional model of Catlin Tucker
- A brief introduction to constructive alignment
- More information on Bloom's taxonomy
- Felder-Silverman model of learning styles for engineering students
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Pravina Manoharan, cohost of the Cheeky Academics podcast and Chair of the music department at USM Universiti Sains Malaysia in Malaysia.
We learn from her what it's like to get a PhD in ethnomusicology, what doing a PhD in a creative field such as music looks like, some misunderstandings people have on what a musician does (hint: it's much more than only performing!), how she balances her research, supervision activities, and chairing her department, and her current work with Avid Education.
She also gives us an insight in what a day in the life looks like for her, how she shifted hands-on music teaching to an online environment, and gives her best advice for PhD students.
References:
- Dr. Pravina Manoharan's university profile
- The Cheeky Academics podcast
- Avid Education
- Tamil hiphop playlist
- Tea picking opera
- Gamelan instrument
In today's episode, we talk about virtual conferences:
- our experience with attending virtual conferences,
- the different formats of virtual conferences and why understanding the format matters when it comes to getting most out of the conference,
- our best tips for attending virtual conferences (while the rest of the world keeps spinning around you), and
- our best tips for presenting at virtual conferences.
References to this episode:
- From the PhD Talk blog
- Tips for attending virtual conferences
- And another blog post with tips
- Article on Lufthansa's estimate that air travel will only be back to normal in 2023
In today's episode, we interview Professor Tanya Golash-Boza. Professor of Sociology at the University of California - Merced. As a writer, speaker, and teacher, she tells stories of people and of systems to help colleagues, students, readers, and listeners understand how racism and capitalism structure our lives and what we need to do to change this country and the world.
We talk about her career path, fieldwork abroad with a family in tow, her current research, and how blogging has influenced her (public) identity as a professor. Dr. Golash-Boza shares her best tips for setting boundaries, putting writing first, and about the writing retreats she leads where she teaches others the methods to find focus in their writing. We also get her best advice on bringing more racial and social justice to academia, and discuss our experiences as female professors and the sexism in academia. We also learn her best tip for PhD students, and how COVID-19 has influenced her work.
References mentioned in this episode:
- Blog: Get a Life, PhD.
- Homepage
- University website
- Book: Deported
- Writing your journal article in 12 weeks: a guide to academic publishing success - Wendy Laura Belcher
- Tedx Talk link
- Link to post on weekly template
Today's episode is a Q&A episode. We received questions about how to select and narrow down a research topic, when to contact potential advisors, and what our major skills and struggles as researchers are. In addition, we discuss what we've learned from the last 4 months of podcasting, as well as our favorite books and albums of 2021 so far.
If you have questions for us for a future episode, feel free to send them in!
Here are the resources we mentioned in the recording with regard to defining a research topic and contacting possible advisors:
- Creative research methods by Helen Kara
- How to choose your research question, a guest post by Helen Kara on the PhD Talk blog
- When to contact possible advisors
Books mentioned in the podcast:
- Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- Lode Zielens - Moeder, waarom leven wij
- Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller
- Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
We both follow the Modern Mrs Darcy 2021 reading challenge.
Albums and playlist mentioned in the podcast:
- Eva’s 2021 new albums playlist
- Anneke van Giersbergen - The Darkest Skies are the Brightest
- Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
In today's episode we interview Arjenne Louter, the Dutch PhD coach.
Listen to today's episode to learn more about how Arjenne became a PhD coach, how a PhD coach can help PhD students, and what is often missing in doctoral education and supervision.
We learned from Arjenne about the most common struggles of PhD students, challenges for international PhD students in the Netherlands, and what supervisors and universities can do better to support their PhD students.
In addition, we learned about Arjenne's best advice for PhD students, how COVID-19 has changed her job, and what a day in the life looks like for her.
Additional references:
- Arjenne's website Louter Promoveren (in Dutch) and the Dutch PhD Coach (in English)
- More about the Pyramic principle
- Writing advice by Arjenne: go to the writing section on her website (in English and in Dutch)
- Julia Cameron's Morning Pages from her books The Artist's Way and The Artist's Way at Work
In today's episode, we discuss supervision issues - issues we have observed around us and issues we have experienced ourselves. We look at the different types of supervisions issues that are common, what you can do when you encounter an issue in the working relationship with your supervisor, and what you can do at the start of your working relationship with your supervisor to prevent issues in the future (within what is reasonable). We also look at the perspective of the supervisor, and the role of universities in providing their supervisors with training and support.
Additional resources:
- PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: How to have efficient meetings with your supervisor
- On dealing with an absent supervisor
- How to learn from your supervisor
- Newsletter signup for the template for preparing a meeting with your supervisor
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jonathan Guillemot, a lecturer and researcher at the School of Medicine of Universidad San Francisco de Quito. We talk about doing a PhD part-time, Jonathan's current responsibilities, his best advice for PhD students, the impact of COVID-19 on his work, and we take a deep dive into the topic of systematic reviews.
The resources mentioned in this episode are:
- Cochrane library
- Youtube video - Jonathan's workshop on systematic reviews
You can find Jonathan Guillemot online:
- Contact details of Jonathan jrguillemot@usfq.edu.ec
- Academia profile
- Researchgate
In today's episode, we discuss how we gather references when starting a literature review. We discuss where to find references, and some tips and tricks to find hard-to-find references.
Here are the websites we use for finding articles:
- Engineering Village
- Scopus
- Google Scholar
- ResearchGate
Here are some of the structural engineering particularities we mentioned:
- SSRP from UCSD
- Ritter 1899 reference
- IABSE SEI
Here are some extra links to explore some of the topics we mentioned further:
- Reference mining
- Search string syntaxis
- Interlibrary loans: check your university for the procedures, this example is from Delft University of Technology
In today's episode, we interview Kaelyn Apple, first year PhD candidate in African American history at Yale, YouTuber at The Redhead Academic, and business owner of Accepted.
We discuss her path from UCLA (with an exchange at Cambridge), Oxford to Yale, the way she combines her studies with her online presence and her business, and her best tips for getting in the university of your dreams.
Kaelyn also shares her insights on the role of academia in racial and social justice, and how she shares her research insights in her YouTube videos. We also look at a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on her daily tasks and work, and the joys of having a dog on your PhD journey.
Further reading on African American history, and its impact on today's world:
- The book that inspired Kaelyn: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An american controversy - Annette Gordon-Reed
- Not mentioned, but also recommended reading: Annette Gordon-Reed - Most blessed of the patriarchs
- Jennifer Morgan
- Daina Ramey Berry
- Stephanie Jones-Rogers
- David Blight
- Joanne Freeman
- Ibram X. Kendi (and his Goodreads author profile to check out his books)
Find Kaelyn online here:
- Youtube channel
- Personal website
- Accepted
In today's episode, we look at how we read research articles for the literature review of your PhD thesis as well as in the later career stages. Listen to today's episode to learn more about how to read broadly and deeply, how often to read, how to take notes of what you read, and how to digitize the articles you read and your associated notes.
Software we mentioned:
Reference management tools:
- Endnote
- Mendeley
- Zotero
Note-keeping tools:
- Evernote
Check out this resource on how to find the citation to export into your reference management tool (Endnote specific, but you can find similar tutorials for the software of your choice)
Books we talked about:
Under the volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Kani on shear in reinforced concrete
Websites we mentioned:
SSRN
Episode we referenced:
Ep. 10 - Interview with Michelle Crowther
In today's episode, we interview Christina Shenvi, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, the Associate Residency Program Director and Director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence (OAE). We learned from Christina about going for an MD after her PhD in chemistry, how to create a life you love, how to manage time and expectations, and how to make audacious decisions. This episode is full of nuggets of wisdom for anyone in academia (from students to senior faculty), those thinking about going to med school, and beyond.
Check out Christina’s blog.
Books mentioned in the episode:
- Built to Last - Jim Collins
- Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning
Christina also mentioned the Mindful return program for those returning after parental leave.
In today's episode, we addressed a few questions that came in through the PhD Talk blog. We discuss what a day in the life looks like during COVID-19 for both of us, the programs and apps we use on a daily basis (and the ones that tend to suck us in for too much time), our experiences with meditation and the effects we have noticed, and coaching programs during the PhD year and mid-career years.
The programs we mentioned are:
PhDometer
Toggl Track
Evernote
Todoist
Google Keep
Headspace
Meditation Timer
In today's episode, we talk about writing habits. We discuss Rico's lessons learned from struggling with writing his entire MSc thesis, Eva's experiences of writing her PhD thesis, writing during the tenure track years, and current writing habits. At the end, we give our best tips for consistent writing and developing good writing habits.
The PhDometer mentioned is available for download on the PhD2Published website
The best advice on thesis writing that Eva read during her PhD years (and kick-started her writing) is this famous post by the Thesis Whisperer
A guest post on Eva's blog that motivated her to think better about day rhythms for writing is this post by Dr. Amber Davis.
In this episode, Rico and Eva interview Michelle Crowther. Michelle is the learning and research librarian for humanities and languages at CCCU Canterbury Christ Church University (Canterbury, UK) and PhD candidate in English Literature at CCCU. We discuss the work of a university librarian, and how librarians can support university students and researchers, on campus as well as in the digital realm. Listen to this week's episode to learn more about the work of a university librarian, how this work has changed over time, and abruptly due to COVID-19, as well as to learn more about the function of the physical space of the university library.
See the library building at CCCU here. Check out the "Doing a Literature Review - Releasing the Research Imagination" by Chris Hart, as recommended by Michelle.
In this episode, Rico and Eva discuss various options for grants and scholarships for graduate studies. Listen to learn about options for funding graduate school in Canada, Belgium, the USA, the Netherlands - as well as our own experiences with various types of funding.
In today's episode, we learn from Rico's experience in an engineering PhD that has an experimental component. We discuss lessons learned, planning in the lab, the practical aspects of making and testing specimens, and then have a quick look at data processing after an experiment. We also discuss how things have changed since Eva did her PhD on an experimental topic.
In today's episode, we interview Ivan Carrera, a PhD candidate in bioinformatics and Ecuadorian professor. His scientific career has taken him and his growing family from Ecuador to Brazil, Portugal, and Colombia. Listen to today's episode on Ivan's research, his experiences abroad, and being a scientific father. Follow Ivan on Twitter @elprofe_ivan or Instagram @elprofe_ivan and check out his blog papacientifico.com
In this episode, Rico and Eva discuss their professional and personal goals for 2021. We discuss research, writing, teaching - how we expect the pandemic to influence these in the year to come, and how goals relate to. Eva shares goals regarding service and admin as well. We then discuss our personal pandemic-proof goals for 2021.
In this episode, we reflect on 2020. We discuss how the pandemic impacted our research, what progress we made, as well as our personal goals.
In today's episode, we interview Silvia Pugliese, who is doing her PhD in a Marie
Curie european ITN (international training network) . We talk about the project, her part in it, the logistics, and lessons learned from the pandemic.
In this episode, we discuss gifts you may want to consider for the PhD students and academics in your life - or, if you are a PhD student or academic, gifts you may like to receive. We've broken these down into two categories: productivity and leisure. Listen for gift ideas, as well as discussions on weird music mashups, the best chairs for fidgety people, and gardening for those who do not have a garden at home.
Today, we discuss the sometimes messy nature of the PhD timeline - from our own experiences as compared to the "ideal" timeline. We also discuss additional requirements, as well as international differences.
In this episode, we ( Eva and Rico) discuss why we started this podcast, and interview each other on our background, lab adventures, and how we spend our time.