Knowledge matters. It informs how we think about the world around us. It informs our decisions and government policies, supporting economic growth and development. Knowledge is also power. Certain types of knowledge are given more value than others. This is driven by histories of privilege. In South Africa, apartheid looms large in debates about how knowledge is produced. […] … learn more→

We all want to do research that matters. Right? Surely no one out there wants to spend a load of time and energy doing research that is of no value, that nobody will take any notice of and that won’t make an iota of difference to anyone anywhere? Why do that? Of course, there is a […] … learn more→

Australia’s research institutions are targets for nefarious actors, from China and elsewhere. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has publicly tabled an “awareness” of various attempts to compromise the sector. What are we doing about it? Not enough, according to critics. One recent charge is that Australia “lags behind” its allies and partners in responding to threats to “research […] … learn more→

What’s a “side project”? A side project is the academic project you do alongside your main academic research. If you’re doing a full time PhD, the side project is another smaller bit of research. If you’re working as a postdoc on someone else’s project and this is is your main work then, alas, trying to […] … learn more→

Katalin Karikó is the brand new winner of the latest Nobel Prize in Medicine, along with Drew Weissman. For this Hungarian scientist, her personal and professional life were never a bed of roses. She emigrated to the United States, along with her husband and her daughter, with nothing more than about $1,200 hidden in the little […] … learn more→

My job is to help people get funding. I occasionally get requests from friends and family to help them with a funding application. I love these requests – I get to show them what I do, and help them with something that they need. It reminds me that different types of funding need different approaches, […] … learn more→

Lots of we scholarly peeps struggle to find time to write. Time is on pretty well everyone’s list. So we keep looking for better ways to manage our time so we can get more time to write. My proprietary university software seems to want to help – it now issues a weekly bulletin, whether I […] … learn more→

Happy new year everyone! It’s summer here in Australia, where we take a long break. I want to talk about Tidying in this post, but first – some news: ‘How to fix your academic writing trouble’ continues to be a strong seller after 5 years, but Large Language Models (LLM) like Chattie G (Chat GPT) are now part […] … learn more→

There are some very common reasons why journal papers get rejected, often by the editor. They don’t even make it to review. Here’s the seven deadly paper writing sins: (1) The paper doesn’t fit the journal. It’s very important to check out the specific journal for which you re writing and tailor the paper to fit […] … learn more→

The Australian government is going all in on quantum computing. After investing more than $100 million on “quantum technology” in 2021, it is now reportedly considering spending up to $200 million on purchasing a “quantum computer” from a US company. Is this a sensible decision? You might think so, if you read reports from media, industry and government predicting that quantum […] … learn more→