Praxis Blog Carnival – Your Graduate Guide To Succeeding In 2009

Welcome to the beginning of 2009 and the Guide to Postgraduate study at Praxis!

Sometimes it’ll appear to be a carnival about careers in academia; sometimes it’ll seem like life lessons and the way your scholastic endeavors change your world and others.

Here, the experts investigate, interrogate and enlighten with their wit and wisdom – enjoy the entries and I hope you enjoy the forthcoming year.

Class Registration

• Good Topics for Future Research – And How You Find Them at Thus Spake Zuska – ‘How do you generate your ideas? And how do you keep track of them?’

Learning Support

• Give The Academic Gift That Keeps On Giving – at Mudphudder: ‘So why should you actively try to involve others at an authorship level?’

• Secret Science – at Drug Monkey – “Are unusual efforts to keep science secret a violation of these publication rules? In spirit if not in actual point of law?”

• Proposal: The Journal of Null Results – at  Effortless Incitement: ‘Journals mostly have a strong preference for articles that do find something, which means something other than an outcome consistent with the null hypothesis. That is, they prefer ‘positive’ results. There are arguments for this preference, but following it comes at a cost.’

• The Shock Value of Science Blogs – at A Blog Around The Clock: “Those who rose to the top due to being good at playing the game know, deep inside, they do not deserve that high position on merit alone. And they will be the loudest defenders of the system as it has historically been – they know if the changes happen, and people get re-evaluated for merit again, they will be the first to fall. This is the case in every area (mainstream journalism, business, politics, etc.), not just academic science.”

Plan Your Timetable

• Why Do We Blog and Other Important Questions, Answered By 34 Science Bloggers – at Gobbledygook.

University Library

• University Libraries, Budgets, and Open Access – at Biocurious: ‘…What, then, if the university decided to embrace the open access movement entirely? This is obviously a pie-in-the-sky idea, but bear with me, as the result is interesting.’

• The Problem with Publication-Driven Science – at Mike The Mad Biologist: ‘…the use of published articles as ’scientific currency’ can retard the adoption of new breakthroughs. A recent personal experience is in order.’
  

Career Advice And Graduation

• How To Make An Elephant Turn Invisible – at Greg Laden’s Blog: ‘The elephants in the Upper Semliki River Valley in the Eastern Congo at the time our expedition (late 1980s) are especially interesting because at the time it was believed that no elephants lived there. Yet, as part of my research, I discovered that this was inaccurate….’
• Season Of Giving Comes To a Close – at Mudphudder: ‘So now, whenever I have a good idea, I either keep it to myself, waiting for the time that I become a faculty member with at least some recourse if someone tries to rip me off.’

• Ask Dr. Isis — On Behalf of Your Better Half: ‘Mr. Isis has an upcoming job interview and recently received some pre-interview materials that told him that “casual attire” was acceptable.  He wanted to know what that meant…’

The next round will be out at Mudphudder.com – the author of some fine entries this round – check out the original Praxis site at LayScience.net for more!

Thank you very much to those who entered – hope you also check out the latest Skeptic’s Circle, out now too.

Tagged as: academia, advice, blog carnival, Education, Links Elsewhere, news, Praxis, school