A reader ponders yet another mystery of advising, in this case graduate students: One of the prospective grad students who would likely have worked with me if he had come…
Fuzzy COI
A reader who is/was acting as guest-editor for a special issue of a journal wrote to ask some questions about whether s/he could solicit manuscripts from certain colleagues, advisors (past/present)…
How Many Times
How many times can a professor use outside offers to negotiate retention packages at their university? I don't know, but a reader who is possibly in a position to get…
Losing by Speaking Up
A reader wonders, based in part on this discussion (on Bob Sutton's blog), about differences in how much men and women talk in professional settings, and how they are perceived…
Works Not Well With Others
A reader wonders about the boundary between immersion and self-centered approach in research. Is it possible to be too focused on your research in a way that is seen as "self-centered"…
Token Award
This week, let's talk about the rewards of diversity: Some departments, schools, professional organizations, and so on have awards that are specifically for women, such as an award by one…
I Used to Be Nicer
Does anyone share this advisor-angst?: When I was an assistant professor and establishing my research group, it was difficult for me to recruit excellent PhD students. I define "excellent student"…
Promote Yourself
An interesting question/topic from a reader; touched on before in previous posts, but worth a revisit: I would love if you posted on active self-promotion in the sciences... that is,…
Mentoring Madness
In my recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, on the topic of Mid-Career Mentoring, one of the comments cast aspersions on mentors and mentoring. I wanted to follow…
Academic Fish Ponds
This is a recent e-mail from a reader, but it's a topic I was thinking about in a related context, so this is timely (for me): I'm a grad student…