Welcome to 2020! I hope you managed a break of some form because we know that rest and recuperation matter. For me, it was good to kick back and disconnect from the work-a-day load and anxieties, and focus on recharging in my own way – here’s how I went. Seeing the year out in 2019 with a […] … learn more→

Writing has always been the storehouse of human knowledge and the backbone of civilisations. To this day, it carries our best hopes for building a better future. Within it is the potential to curb climate change, stave off drought and famine and cure diseases. However, the flow of information is stifled by the very means […] … learn more→

Today, the value of a researcher is mainly based on the number of citations he receives in scientific articles. A set of indices have been established, in the light of this vision of performance, to objectify the scientific productivity of a researcher. The best known of these was developed in 2005 by Jorge Hirsch: the h-index, […] … learn more→

Do you wonder about the difference between coding and programming? Are you new to these concepts? If you hear the word kernel, do you think about corn before you think about computing? Do you have maths trauma, believe in the ‘geek’ gene, stare blankly at people who mention operating systems, the command line or bandwidth? […] … learn more→

My commute is a big chunk of my working life these days. I’m more than five years into a job for which I commute about 3 hours a day (1.5 hours there and back). It’s usually a two-leg journey—train then bus—and occasionally a three-leg one—two trains then bus. I love my job and the people […] … learn more→

Imagine you’re running a small business. But imagine you only have one customer, and there’s only a one-in-five chance of getting a contract with them each year. Obviously, you plough huge, disproportionate effort into getting that contract. But you’ve missed out for a couple of years. Will you have to lay off staff? Can you […] … learn more→

The word “ethics” strikes fear into the hearts of most early career researchers. Some of the reasons are beyond our control, but there’s actually a lot we can do to make our own experiences of the ethics approval process less painful. I’m writing this from two perspectives: as an early career researcher (I finished my […] … learn more→

First of all, an introductory note: to propose a one-size-fits-all definition of colonialism would be itself quite a colonial approach, and I would instead prefer to point you at this extensive reading list. For the purpose of this article, it will suffice to say that colonialism is about the oppressive domination of lands and people […] … learn more→

It is tempting to be suspicious of the research impact agenda – not least the new industry it has created. With the value of a 4* impact case study in the 2014 research excellence framework estimated at £324,000, it is not surprising that specialist jobs in research offices, impact-focused workshops and consultancy opportunities have emerged. […] … learn more→

Last week, the Australian Research Council (ARC) released their Gender and the Research Workforce report. While it appropriately positions the need for direct action in providing support to increase the national participation rates of female researchers, there’s an entire group of researchers missing from the analysis, graphs, and the resolutions of gender parity announced on the 10th of October […] … learn more→