Tag Archives: Academia

Uses and Misuses of Twitter

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In this post, I’m going to assume you know (roughly) what Twitter is and how it works. If you don’t, you might like to start with one of these helpful guides by Dorothy Bishop and Tom Hartley.

Somehow Twitter has become a bit of a hot topic at work lately and many of my colleagues have been asking me about it. I usually respond enthusiastically, because I generally think Twitter is great and everyone should give it a go. But it has got me thinking about exactly why I like it and, more importantly, how I use it. I’ve pulled together a few of my favourite (mainly academically-themed) uses, and a few uses of Twitter that are not so appealing to me. The beauty of twitter, though, is that it is vast enough to have space for all of these different uses and more, so there is definitely no ‘right way’ or ‘wrong way’ to use it.

First the positives:

+ 1. Relevant hashtags

For me, making good use of hashtags is one of the keys to using Twitter effectively. A well-placed hashtag can open up your tweet to a far wider audience than just your immediate followers. However, there can be a fine line between ‘use’ and ‘misuse’ of hashtags. Using the appropriate hashtag for your intended audience is important. For example, including the hashtag #ECRchat can open up your tweet to an active audience of early career researchers, however, a tweet including the often-used #ECR hashtag is more likely to be lost amongst East Coast Radio lovers, European Conservatives & Reformists, and more. Therefore, you should get to know the common hashtags in your area of interest and try to make sure that any new hashtags you coin are unique.

Another favourite use of hashtags is to organise live tweetchats. Although tweetchats are not everyone’s idea of a good use of Twitter, for me, they help create a sense of community and solidarity around a common goal or problem. Joining in chats is a great way to share advice, increase your number of followers, and find like-minded people to follow. However, one down-side to joining in a chat can be a very high volume of tweets in a short time, which might annoy your other followers if it fills their Twitter feed. Sticking to direct replies can help, as your followers will only see the direct replies to people they follow as well, limiting how much you clutter their feed. Though, see point 6, below, for when this might become a problem.

+ 2. Tweeting links

Another perfect use of Twitter is to tweet links to your blog, other people’s blogs you have enjoyed, funding calls, job opportunities, and more. You could think of it as adding value for the people you follow by curating a stream of relevant and interesting information. It is difficult to say a lot in 140 characters, but so much more information and discussion can shared by adding a link. Don’t, however, just tweet the link without any supporting information. At least say what the link is or why it is relevant, and credit someone using their Twitter handle if possible (either the author of the article or the person who brought it to your attention). Tweeting just a link and a list of hashtags looks like spam.

+ 3. Finding interesting stuff to read

As well as tweeting interesting things to the appropriate hashtags, I think it is important to use Twitter for listening. Read what other people are tweeting about and benefit from the value added by the people you follow. Joining Twitter to tweet about your own stuff without ever listening to what else is going on is a bit like going to a party and shouting in people’s faces, then running away.

+ 4. Being a real person

I think a good (but not necessary) use of Twitter is to add a bit more of the ‘real you’ to your professional profile. What I mean is that I don’t think every tweet has to be a link to a journal article, job posting, conference abstract, etc. I think it’s fine to tweet about the normal everyday stuff that’s going on right now. Yes, make me jealous with a photo of those cookies you just baked. If you would tell your office mates, boss, parents, and partner (all of those people, not just one), then it’s safe for Twitter. Just remember, it’s a public platform, and keep in mind point 9, below.

+ 5. Catching breaking news

If it’s happening in the world, it’s on Twitter. On more than one occasion I have logged in to Twitter and come across breaking news before I saw it elsewhere. I love that it’s like having all of the world’s news resources in one place. Ideally, having access to so many sources and opinions in one place should give a less biased view of unfolding news, rather than having the information screened (or added to) by one particular media source. However, I try to bare in mind that Twitter can be a bit of an echo chamber. Your followers will typically share a similar world view to you and to each other (which is probably why you are following them), so the impact of one perspective on a topic can be exaggerated.

Next, to my least favourite possible uses of Twitter:

- 6. IM service

Yes, Twitter is about conversations, but I don’t think it is a good substitute for a private instant messaging service in some circumstances. I think it’s great when a tweet sparks a discussion, especially when that discussion grows and is joined by many others. Public debate and discussion is exactly what Twitter is perfect for. However, it gets on my nerves a little when my Twitter feed is filled with a more personal conversation that does not have much relevance for anyone other than the two or three people in the conversation. If I’m following both people in the conversation  there is no getting away from it. Even though both people might generally tweet interesting things, I don’t necessarily want to watch their personal conversation unfold. Some people would put this on the ‘uses’ list, but for me it can be annoying enough to cause me to unfollow someone.

- 7. Celeb stalking

When I first joined Twitter, I mainly followed comedians and popular news sites. I quickly got bored and decided Twitter wasn’t for me. It wasn’t until I came back to it a couple of years later that I realised there were far more interesting and relevant uses. If my Twitter stream was cluttered with celebs tweeting about their breakfast, I would struggle (even more than I do already) to catch the useful advice and information that rushes by. I suppose, however, that another version of ‘celeb stalking’ is following the big name professors, which I definitely do!

- 8. Automated tweets

When I say that ‘automated tweets’ annoy me, I’m not talking about pre-scheduled tweets using a service like Buffer. For the record, I think that pre-scheduling tweets for later is brilliant for lots of reasons (see also point 9). The kind of automated tweets that annoy me are the “Joe Bloggs ran 5 miles in 10 seconds using run-for-your-life app” style tweets. If you don’t care enough to change the predefined message template, why should I care enough to read it? I also dislike tweets about automatically-curated ‘newspapers’, but much less, given that they do actually contain some interesting information sometimes.

- 9. Status updates

I think there is a delicate balance to be struck between being genuine and over-sharing. I can’t deny that tweets sharing photos, achievements, and other personal news are nice and I often enjoy reading them. It’s good to know a little bit more about the people I follow, but no, I don’t want to know every small detail of your life as it happens. Tweeting lots of updates in a row can be annoying, even when each of those updates would be potentially interesting and useful on it’s own. If you only go on Twitter for a short time and have lots to share, try using a service like Buffer to spread your tweets out a bit. It will be potentially less annoying for your followers, and you will reach different followers who are online at other times.

- 10. Advertising

Advertising on Twitter is irritating enough to make the list, but not so intrusive that it would stop me using it. Thankfully, the occasional tweet or follow from a spam bot or company account doesn’t swamp the tweets from my genuine followers. I try to follow the golden rule of not clicking on strange looking links from tweeps like @candylovelegs101 (especially those “look what so-and-so said about you” links), which seems to have kept me safe so far. Those direct messages when someone’s account has been hacked drive me crazy, though. I try to feel sympathy for the person who has been hacked, but I can’t help blaming them a little. I’m sure my words will come back to haunt me if, and when, it happens to me, though.

Well, they were my favourite (and not so favourite) uses of Twitter. One of the wonderful things about Twitter is that my favourite use could be your annoyance, and vice versa. Feel free to tell me so, or to add your own in the comments or via Twitter (@KL_Wheat).

 

Academic Writing Month: Monitoring Progress

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For my second blog post of academic writing month (#AcWriMo), I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on my progress so far. For me, taking on this writing challenge is about more than just getting more words on a page; it is about taking a closer look at my writing habits, working more effectively, and creating better writing habits for the future.

In order to monitor my progress, I have a spreadsheet to record all of my academic writing activity; not just in terms of the number of words I write, but also what these words are contributing towards, and when and where I write most effectively. Each day I have a specific writing goal listed at the top of my to-do list, and I record my output (or lack of output) in my spreadsheet. If I didn’t manage to write anything, then I make a note about what other tasks I completed; that way I can track what kind of tasks distract me from writing and whether, in retrospect, they were urgent tasks or procrastination tactics. So far, I have found that just this process of monitoring writing output and setting daily goals has affected the amount and quality of my writing in a positive way. By which I mean that most days I do write something (which was not true previously) and that what I write is usually contributing to a constructive goal (rather than disjointed note-taking, for example).

The actual change to my daily routine has been very small. On the days I have met (or exceeded) my 500 word target, I have dedicated just one or two hours to writing. I have tried not to spend more time working than usual, but it is difficult to say where these hours have come from. I haven’t been working on my experiment this week (due to equipment problems) so I guess that’s where I found most of the extra time. This will be an interesting aspect for me to look at as the month goes on and I attempt to balance writing alongside teaching and teaching preparation, as well as running my experiment and data analysis. It is important to me that I end up with a writing system that is workable around other tasks and sustainable in the long-run.

In terms of output, the main positive thing for me about joining in with this challenge is that I have started working on a review paper that I have been thinking about for a few months. My running total is only 1879 words towards this task so far, but breaking in a blank page on a new project can be a very difficult hurdle to overcome, so I am pleased to have finally made a start. The main challenge will be to keep up with the reading at a fast enough pace to keep the words flowing. Getting the research in place is vital for this kind of writing project, so I am probably going to need to dedicate some of my ‘writing hours’ to reading and researching instead. Hopefully, during my actual writing hours, I will then be inspired to gets words onto the page faster and more coherently so that I can catch up to my daily target by increasing the number of words per hour, rather than increasing the number of hours spent writing.

If all goes to plan, this will be my last blog post about the writing process until I review my final progress at the end of the month. However, if I get stuck along the way, you might be hearing about it again. Otherwise, stay tuned for a change of topic next Friday (assuming I keep to my weekly update plan).

Week 1 = 4835 words (average of 691 words per day)

My top 10 postdoc pick-me-ups

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Being a postdoc can be hard. Many postdocs seem to feel a sudden increase in responsibility that is not (within the near future) matched by the rewards. We can feel trapped in a postdoc holding pattern, with no stability or promotion in sight. So, when things get tough, we need a little something to remind us how good life is, how great we are, why we love our job, and sometimes just how to be happy again.

Different things will work for different people, but here are a few of my favourite ideas to lift your mood during a rough patch, to reignite your enthusiasm, and to help you see the light at the end of the tunnel (with thanks to Twitter contributors via #postdocpickmeups).

1. Teach an introductory course

Surely there is nothing like a room full of fresh, eager, inquisitive minds to reignite your love for your field? I recently had the pleasure of teaching an introductory course to first year students and found this an amazing way to rediscover topics I had forgotten about and questions I never thought to ask before. If you want your students to be enthusiastic, you have to show them your enthusiasm, and for me this process of picking out the exciting and challenging aspects of each topic and showing them off in all their strange but magnificent glory reminded me exactly why I fell in love with psychology in the first place.

2. Mentor a junior student/colleague

Closely related to teaching is mentoring. I say this because teaching brand new students and mentoring a new student or colleague have something very important in common; having a role in someone else’s learning and development. Being in this position of responsibility can bring challenges and stresses, but being in this privileged position should also show you how far you have come and how much respect you have already earned. I find mentoring very fulfilling; it’s a huge self-esteem boost when someone comes to me with a question that I know the answer to, or even just know how to help them find it.

3. Get busy

Being busy as a pick-me-up probably doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s one that definitely works for me. If I have too much time on my hands then I don’t tend to get much done and my self-esteem suffers along with my level of progress. If I have deadlines that must be met, I know I will meet them, so I have guaranteed milestones of achievement to celebrate. Self-imposed deadlines just don’t work for me at all, but if I promise my time to someone else, it (usually) will get done. At the time, I will tell myself off for taking on too much at once, but afterwards I nearly always feel rewarded.

4. Find some quiet space and fresh air

Taking a long walk or cycle, or being by the sea or in the mountains are popular ways to feel good. Taking some quiet time for reflection or to clear your head can be a great way to feel refreshed and reinvigorated, perhaps even more so when combined with strenuous enough exercise to warrant some liquid refreshment of your choice (maybe a nice beer in a cozy pub?) followed by a long, exhausted sleep. However, be clear that this tip is not mutually exclusive with tip no. 3, in fact a balance of the two might a very effective mood-lifter.

5. Talk about your research

So, you’ve been busy teaching and mentoring and you took the whole weekend off to hike in the mountains. Perhaps it worked for a quick fix, but overall you still feel kind of glum? Maybe it would help to talk about your research? Presenting your research for a departmental seminar, lab meeting, supervisory meeting, lecture, or conference might help you to find your enthusiasm. It gives you a fixed deadline and fairly clear requirements, which could be helpful if you are struggling to focus. Trying to convince someone else that your research is important and exciting can also be a way of reminding yourself of these things. Even if you don’t feel your research has been going well, the feedback that you get could help you make a break through that you might not have found on your own, or find a new collaboration that helps you see things more positively.

6. Get data – even just a tiny bit

Research is difficult; things don’t go to plan, there are administrative hoops to jump through, getting funding and equipment take time, and so on. Therefore, sometimes it can help to celebrate reaching small, but significant, milestones along the way. If you wait until you have collected all the data for a study, you may be waiting a long time. But if you remind yourself that each and every tiny piece of data counts, then perhaps you can feel up-lifted, even if (like me) you have only completed 4 out of 60 testing sessions. I keep reminding myself that I have completed 4 successful sessions without a hitch, which feels far better than none.

7. Ask for help

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t fix things on your own. Try to recognise these situations and don’t forget to ask for help. A while ago, my direct supervisor stopped working due to health problems, but I had a research plan and (in principle) everything I needed to carry on. Everyone assumed everything was fine. I assumed everything was fine. But I underestimated how important it is just to be able to tell someone when (even minor) things go wrong. There was a gap where I didn’t feel like I had anyone to turn to for advice, so I just made the best of things. Once I spoke to my new supervisor about the problems, we set up regular meetings to keep an eye on how things are going. This regular contact has made a huge (positive) difference to how I feel about my research in general.

8. Make a plan

One of the things that has come out of the new regular supervision meetings is a better plan. I had a research plan to start with, but it was more a list of goals, rather than a practical way to achieve them. Since then, my supervisor and I have worked on fleshing this out into something a bit more realistic. The plan started very small; just a list of a few changes to implement for two months, with a commitment to regular evaluations. Then, we slowly introduced more long-term goals, changes, and strategies to achieve them. Each time we meet, we look slightly further into the future and see if things are progressing in the right direction. It can be daunting to plan out a large block of time at once, especially if you set goals that are too broad, so just making a small plan for the coming days or weeks can be a good way to kick-start progress when things haven’t been going well.

9. Make time for your guilty pleasures – without feeling guilty

When you hit a research rut it can be easy to think that longer hours are the answer in order to push through it. Before you know it, you haven’t had a weekend in months. Therefore, this tip is all about making time for yourself. Remind yourself there is life away from your lab or desk. Indulge yourself in those special treats that you know will put a smile on your face. Put on your favourite music, eat your favourite food, drink your favourite drink, do whatever it is that makes you tick. The key is that you must (regularly) put special, sacred time aside for this, because you deserve it! Last weekend I spent most of my time making my own glittery shoes and the rest of my time watching bad TV. No marking, no (work-related) reading, and no guilt! I can almost hear you say how lucky I am to be able to afford to take a whole weekend off, but I assure you that I have plenty of deadlines and tasks I should have been working on. I just decided that from when I left my office on Friday until when I got back there on Monday I was taking the weekend off. Not because I had made any special progress that week, just because everyone needs a full weekend at least now and then!

10. Write something

This final tip is in the same vein as number 6. Just write something, anything, and then celebrate this achievement. If you are stuck on a manuscript, just write one paragraph and then recognise that you have made progress. If you are stuck on a revise-and-resubmit, just address one reviewer comment (similarly for manuscripts returned by collaborators) and then cross it off your list. If you are stuck with what to do next or where to start, write a plan, and consider the plan itself to be step one complete. If you only recognise your progress when you have completed something, it will take a long time before you have anything to celebrate. Therefore, don’t forget to reward yourself for the small amounts of progress you make. As my PhD supervisor told me towards the end of writing up my thesis, every tiny step adds up – if you are trying to cross the Arctic you cannot see the other side, but if you just keep on putting one foot in front of the other, eventually you will reach it.

I hope some of these tips will work for you if you have been having a hard time lately. Don’t forget to add your own postdoc (or researcher) pick-me-up ideas via the comments below.

 

Social Media for Academics: A Twitter Discussion

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Last week, I wrote this post about why some academics participate in social media and others do not. I didn’t set out to suggest that I have any answers, rather, I was curious about what the possibilities might be and if there were already some established answers out there. After spending the day tweeting about the topic [context: I spent last Sunday on Twitter with my feet in a bowl of ice water because it was far too hot, and I was foolish enough to go cycling in that heat the day before], I will now reflect on the ideas that were shared. Since the conversation happened via Twitter, I will also include some relevant tweets.

The offline-academics

In terms of defining the offline-academics, it was mentioned that there are degrees of participation. For example, some people might be more comfortable reading and commenting on blogs, but not really ‘get’ Twitter. Furthermore, there are many other ways to establish an online presence, such as profiles on LinkedIn, Academia.edu, and Researchgate. These are all useful ways of providing contact information and sharing research interests, which can also potentially be used to spark a public conversation, such as group discussions on LinkedIn. It is this public conversation which is key. For me, communication and engagement turn someone from an offline-academic to an online-academic; taking part in the online discussion and community, rather than just consuming information. However, someone with a Twitter account who only uses it for tweeting out links, without ever interacting, might also be considered ‘offline’ in that sense.

Benefits

Many people were willing to testify to the benefits of using Twitter, such as an expanded network, article citations, hearing about job and grant opportunities, and so on. However, it also seemed like many of the benefits might be more relevant for junior academics with smaller, less-established networks. For example, some people discussed the idea that senior academics might already be inundated with requests for supervision and collaboration by e-mail, without the need to raise their profile further.

The benefits of social media seem self-evident for all of the people who I chatted with over the weekend. In some ways, the conversation itself is evidence of the power of platforms such as Twitter. How else could I have such a stimulating ad-hoc discussion with people from all over the world, from the comfort of my couch on a Sunday afternoon?  However, it seems apparent from this discussion that more research is needed into the concrete benefits of social media use, and whether these are quantitatively or qualitatively different from what could be achieved by more traditional methods of networking. Evidence of concrete benefits of social media use could be persuasive for reluctant academics and institutions.

Barriers to starting

It is clear that if someone has no concept of how social media could be useful, they will be less likely to try it, or to stick at it. One theme that came up frequently during the discussion is the time and effort it takes to build up a useful and interesting following on Twitter. If the benefits of a social media following are not clear, this time and effort will probably not be invested, meaning the benefits do not become apparent.

Fear was another theme that came up when discussing barriers to social media use. The idea that academics might be cautious of having their opinions ‘immortalised’ online. Lack of confidence with technology, preference for traditional communication methods, and concerns about how social media use will be perceived by employers, are some of the suggestions that came up under this theme. The perception of my ‘online-life’ by my employer and future employers is something that I often think about. I started building an online presence with future job searches in mind, and it worries me that I could be doing more harm than good just by having a blog at all. This blog serves many purposes; it is a place for me to practice writing, a way of thinking things through out loud, a journal of my academic journey, and a way of seeking advice and opinions. In the short time I have been blogging, I feel it has fulfilled all these wishes and more. I think I could defend myself well if my choice to blog was challenged, and I don’t write about ongoing research, or other subjects that I think would put me in a difficult position with my employer or colleagues. Still, it seems a little bit of that fear has rubbed off on me, without any clear guidelines to fall back on.

Guidelines

Perhaps the most important point that came up is the lack of guidelines for social media use. Although many (or most?) departments are taking steps to put appropriate guidelines in place, there still seems to be insecurity as to what is considered appropriate. Without clear, universal, and readily available guidance from institutions, many academics may be making a conscious decision to opt out of social media for fear of coming under scrutiny from employers or funders, or for fear of jeopardising future opportunities. In particular, social media guidelines must cover issues such as the student-teacher relationship, unpublished research, and confidentiality, in order to protect employers and employees and to give everyone the confidence to be able to participate freely.

It is easy to imagine how social media use could be problematic for academics, if used irresponsibly; but with careful use, clear guidelines, and encouragement from departments and universities, the possibilities for open and broad discussion increase the more of us participate. If you would like to read the Twitter conversation, you can view this Storify. To add your thoughts, tweet me (@KL_Wheat) using the hashtag #offlineac or comment below. I would be interested to hear your views by e-mail too, if you prefer.

 

Who are the offline-academics?

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Lately, I have been participating in a lot of interesting discussions and live chats on Twitter. The purpose of this post is not to sing its praises; first, because you probably came to this blog via Twitter, and second, because lots of people have already done a great job of that (see this journal article, or blog posts here and here, to name a few). Rather, I have been thinking about all of the people, particularly academics, who are not on Twitter (or other social networks). Who are they? These are my (non-evidence-based) musings, but if you know of some research on this please do share it.

The offline-academics

I will call this hypothetical group the ‘offline-academics’, by which I mean, academics who are not engaging regularly with any form of social media, such as writing a blog, participating in LinkedIn discussions, or tweeting. Having a profile page, twitter handle, or personal webpage, does not exempt someone from being labelled as an offline-academic, in this case, unless they actually use it as a form of communication and build a following or network. An offline-academic would, however, be expected to use e-mail; not necessarily even reluctantly. They probably read journal articles online, receive notifications of new journal articles or citations, and use online databases. Perhaps they read news sites and possibly even a blog page or two, but they never comment. The offline-academics do not live in a bubble without the internet, but (for whatever reason) they do not use the internet as a means of public two-way communication with their peers or the wider-world.

Why are they not engaging?

I wonder if it is choice or circumstance that keeps the offline-academic away from social networking. I can imagine that some people with family commitments feel like they haven’t got time for online networking in an already jam-packed schedule, but having a family is not the defining characteristic of the offline-academic (just look at blogs here and here for example). Of course, feeling too busy doesn’t have to be limited to those with families, but I get the impression that many online-academics also feel time pressures from many angles (the live chat topic of #ECRchat today was work/life balance), so busyness doesn’t seem to be the defining feature either.

Have they tried engaging with social media and realised it isn’t for them, or are they unaware of the possibilities? Just a few months ago I was an offline-academic and now I couldn’t imagine giving it up (setting time constraints, yes). I had played around on twitter a little, but didn’t really get much out of stalking celebrities. I used Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, but I wasn’t extending my reach beyond people I knew in real life. I consumed information via the internet but I didn’t make my own mark. Once I decided to make that mark, I quickly realised (and am still realising) the value of sharing, discussing, and exploring ideas online, rather than just soaking them up. Partly I was shy about blogging before I tried it, but mainly I had never considered it in any depth. Are the offline-academics tentative and need a gentle push, or oblivious to the online discussion they are missing?

Are they different from us?

Can offline- and online-academics be separated on other dimensions? Do we have different needs and desires? Are there measurable differences between us, such as publishing rate, impact factor of journal articles (I’m not going to debate the value of this metric here), H-index (another debatable academic metric), number of citations, and so on. I am not going to suggest that either group would ‘win’ a comparison like this, but I would be interested to know how it would turn out. More importantly, how would we go about measuring it at all? Even comparisons of these standard metrics would be extremely difficult given that there is no unique identifier for a particular author, especially not one that is also linked to their social media accounts (or absence of them). Some academics choose to participate in the online debate anonymously, which would mean their data would be wrongly labelled as offline-academic. Self-submitted data could get around this, but how would the offline-academics know to take part?

When asking any question online (whether via Twitter, a blog post, or another forum) the answer will always be biased towards the response of the online-academic. The question is whether this online-academic comes from a representative sample of the academic population, from a skewed sample of the academic population, or from a completely separate population. If you have the answer (or how to find it), I am very interested to know.

What is our common language?

Ultimately, the online-academics and the offline-academics live in the same world. We are affected by the same global issues, such as funding cuts. So what are our common forums? Obviously we see some of the offline-academics face-to-face in our workplaces and at conferences. Departmental coffee mornings, meetings, seminars, and invited talks, all provide a platform for online- and offline-academics to share, discuss, and explore common problems and ideas. However, none of these mediums allow the offline-academic to expand their network or access information as rapidly as social media can. For established academics with a long history of publications, conference presentations, and permanent academic posts, this probably isn’t a problem; they will already have a wide-reaching network through which to access and influence the key debates without social media. What about junior academics with smaller and narrower networks? How can we engage them in the global debate?

The social media digest

How can we engage academics in the global debate despite reluctance, time pressures, shyness, lack of awareness, family commitments, and otherwise ‘having a life’? My solution is the ‘Social Media Digest’; a person (or group of people) who take part in social media on behalf of a department or lab. The Digest would be more than a group Twitter account or website. A company or departmental Twitter account typically tweets outwards to let the world know what is going on inside. A Digest would carefully curate the relevant information and debate and deliver it inwards by e-mail, RSS feed, or even better, by seminar or coffee-club. The Digest could become the connection between a hub of offline activity and the wider world, opening up a two-way discussion by feeding snippets of the debate in both directions. There are many critical issues facing academia that deserve open discussion, not just by those who turn up online (see this blog series on the ‘PhD problem’, for example). How do we make sure everyone hears about the problem and can put their view across?

These are just my wonderings on the topic, so I would love to hear your views. Please share them in the comments below or tweet me about it. I would especially love to hear from you if you know of some related research or researchers (though it’s a long way from the type of research I do, but that’s topic for another post).