Oscar Wilde once said, “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” This week’s collection of articles has many things to read that may help you today or be foundation for who you will be in the future.

The list begins with helpful advice on bio-notes, collaboration, managing research notes, reviving “dead” writing projects, and working with data visualization and research. We then explore some insight into grant applications and journal paper review processes before closing with discussions of open access initiatives in textbook and academic authoring environments and the announcement of Eva O. L. Lantsoght’s new book, The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory.

Whatever you read from this list or otherwise this week, choose items that will continue to shape your career as an author both now and when you can’t help it.

Writing a bio-note

Most of us have to produce bio-notes. The bio-note is a little verbal selfie that goes with a book chapter, a journal article, or sometimes a conference presentation. Book authors also have to provide brief bio-notes which might go in their book as well as on the publisher’s website. The bio-note tells the reader some key information about you, the writer.

Collaboration to improve scholarship

“In the end it’s in everybody’s best interest to have improved outputs. We would, as a community, redeem ourselves if we were able to use all this infrastructure and data to delight our users and improve their lives.” Let’s keep collaborating to achieve those goals!

Ph.D.s and undergraduate research projects

For a graduate student, the thought of mentoring undergraduates in research projects can evoke panic, but Phillipe Wernette found many advantages in a team-based approach.

Help – I’m drowning in my own notes

It’s one of the ‘good problems’ created by the awesome technologies that allow us to capture, file and index endless reams of digital data. Unfortunately, these technologies enable us to become digital hoarders as well as productive researchers.

How to revive academic writing left for dead

We can find endless reasons to set aside a piece of writing. Perhaps we are distracted by another priority or opportunity,  We hit a writers’ block of some kind, and move on to something else. The forces of inertia might hold you back. Or, if we are to be candid, we might just be sick of it! But as time goes on, we might see some benefit from revisiting a piece of work we left for dead.

Data visualization series with Andy Kirk

Throughout the month of May of this year SAGE Publishing has been partnering with Andy Kirk, UK-based data visualization specialist, in offering a series of Data Visualization webinars explaining essential pieces to the discipline. Below are a summaries, written by Andy Kirks and originally posted on SAGE Campus, briefly describing the five courses taught in the month of May.

Researching big data – podcast

In a new installment of The Authority File podcast titled “Researching Big Data: Putting Data in an academic context,” host Bill Mickey interviews SAGE Publishing’s Head of Product Innovation, Ian Mulvaney, and three data academics from University of Southern California Libraries department, Caroline Muglia, Andy Rutkowski, and Eimmy Solis. This instalment is part of a multipart series surrounding research methodologies around—and library support of—big data. In it, the guests discuss big data in an academic setting how big data research is outgrowing its science-based origins and bleeding into the humanities and social sciences.

When grants were handwritten

Here is an exercise for you: imagine all the major grant applications that you submitted this year, printed out eight times each (I think we asked for eight copies of each application). Then think about the logistics involved in getting them physically transported to the funding agency on time. Today? We just push a button.

What reviewers look for in your submission

Today, we are looking at academic writing from a different perspective. As a journal paper reviewer, what do I look for in a submission?

Open textbooks

Should textbooks go digital? In today’s Academic Minute, part one of our series on the cost of textbooks, the University of Northwestern St. Paul’s Tanya Grosz explores how open textbooks can help students make their dollar go further.

How important are open access books to academic authors?

To kick off Academic Book Week in April, Springer Nature held a free event  for researchers exploring open access (OA) books, discussing topics such as why academics publish OA books, how the impact of their research can be tracked, and the future of OA book funding.

The A-Z of the PhD trajectory

This textbook is a guide to success during the PhD trajectory. The first part of this book takes the reader through all steps of the PhD trajectory, and the second part contains a unique glossary of terms and explanation relevant for PhD candidates.