Things in my life have been a little heavy and stressful lately so I thought it would be good for my heart and soul to write a post focused on the fun and ridiculous elements of the academic internets and beyond. Working on Research Whisperer through the years, I’ve been more aware of the ways […] … learn more→

Recently on Twitter, a debate took place over advice from Professor Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics and public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, that a practising scientist should establish themselves before aiming to go too far down the road in communicating science. While much of the debate was based on just a […] … learn more→

What is an Instagram Challenge? An Instagram Challenge is when a group of people commit to daily posts on Instagram for a specific period of time (usually 1 month). You receive a daily prompt to inspire you to create a post for your Instagram feed. The prompts are open to interpretation adding fun and diversity […] … learn more→

I can’t save you There are serious structural problems in universities worldwide. The number of permanently employed staff is shrinking. The number of precariously employed staff (casual, adjunct, paid by the hour) is increasing. I can’t change that. This situation isn’t getting any better. It gets worse. Unionism (like the National Tertiary Education Union in Australia) […] … learn more→

The entirety of my career in public health law has included some component of research and publishing. This year, I hit an unfortunate milestone: my writing project list had ballooned to nearly 70 entries. These projects ranged from articles accepted for publication and undergoing the final editing process to random ideas collected over the course […] … learn more→

In an academic publishing environment that does not require publishers to compensate contributors for their knowledge and output, or to provide an authentically supportive framework for scholars to exercise ownership of their work, what recourse does an author have to dynamic scholarly revision of their work? English as a second language Papers produced by academics […] … learn more→

I have hosted and co-hosted a number of chats on Twitter under existing hashtags, and last month I set up my own Twitter chat on creative research methods. In case you’re new to all this, a hashtag is a way of keeping track of topics and content on Twitter. For example, if you want to know what […] … learn more→

Are you often a no-show? Or one of those people who says “Maybe” on a Facebook event? I’m a veteran events organiser.  Throughout my career, planning and running events has been an integral part of the work I do. Now, as a lecturer in a researcher development unit, convening programs is a big part of my […] … learn more→

There’s considerable confusion about what ‘impact’ is, and this is no surprise given that it’s a term that’s used for so many things in the contemporary research space. For my research, I’ve had many, many conversations with people across higher education in Australia and Canada at all career levels (research higher degree students, Early Career […] … learn more→

I’ve recently started at a new university. This is a good thing. It was time that I moved on, and I’m going to learn a huge amount in my new role. My new manager is amazing, and the team are excellent. However, it is also a little bit odd. I’ve gone from being the person […] … learn more→