The trajectory of those who research is subject to strict evaluation criteria in which scientific publications, especially journals, have substantial weight. The achievement or not of certain recognitions that allow us to advance in our career depends, to a significant extent, on the publications that have been made in prestigious magazines. These journals are indexed in international […] … learn more→

You all know about leftovers. The bits of a meal that you couldn’t quite finish. The remnants that end up in a plastic box or a covered bowl in the fridge. Mostly you get round to eating them for lunch afterwards, yum. But occasionally you find a long forgotten leftover lurking behind jars – it’s […] … learn more→

Undergraduate training for data scientists – dubbed the sexiest job of the 21st century by Harvard Business Review – falls short in preparing students for the ethical use of data science, our new study found. Data science lies at the nexus of statistics and computer science applied to a particular field such as astronomy, linguistics, medicine, psychology […] … learn more→

Female Scientist Sits at His Workplace in Laboratory, Uses Personal Computer. Screen Shows Analyze of DNA. I the Background Genetics Research Centre with Innovative Equipment.[/caption] Female Scientist Sits at His Workplace in Laboratory, Uses Personal Computer. Screen Shows Analyze of DNA. I the Background Genetics Research Centre with Innovative Equipment.[/caption] A sudden rule change by the Australian […] … learn more→

Research at Australian universities has been scrutinised through the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) assessment exercise, Excellence in Research for Australia, since 2010. A companion Engagement and Impact Assessment exercise began in 2018. The time and costs for universities of running these exercises (the ARC collected this information when ERA began but never released it) and the value they generate for […] … learn more→

According to a recent article, Australia’s academics “were already among the world’s most stressed”. Workloads are out of control. COVID-19 impacts on the university sector include retirements, redundancies, rising precarity, restructuring, and this sits alongside decades of underfunding. In this environment, we need to address the amount of unpaid work being done – not just in […] … learn more→

We love sharing good stuff. It’s something we’ve tried to do consistently. Most often, we share and talk about topics relevant to researcher life, funding culture, and academic track-record building. We know how much work it is to create and provide a quality resource that’s supportive and generates a positive community dynamic. We know we […] … learn more→

Research commercialisation in Australia has been getting more attention recently, but researchers face major obstacles to achieving this. If Australia wants to get serious about commercialising research knowledge, then we have to look seriously at the obstacles and incentives for researchers. Australia’s gross spending on research and development (R&D) funding has been in the lower half of […] … learn more→

Looking for an international postdoc? Watch out for the not-student, not-employee trap! You’d think that when you finish your PhD you’d finally stop being “just a student”. After all, once you have completed your university’s Higher Degree Research programme, there is no such thing as an Even-Higher Degree Research programme (at least in Australia). However, […] … learn more→

Plan S is clear: science must be public and publicly funded research must be accessible by anyone. Like many colleagues, I am keen to see this happening. How to make it happen is, however, a different story. In an effort to liberalise the market, Plan S asked the publishers to disclose the price for open access […] … learn more→