“Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.” Isabelle Lafleche is credited with this quote framing our weekly collection of posts. So what is your passion? Where is your courage? And what do you need to align the two?

Perhaps some of the ideas below will help build the courage or clarify your passion, or both. We have found resources on enhancing visual thinking, organizing research notes, online learning, pursuing, planning, and progressing on a PhD, and additional writing quotes to motivate you on the journey.

We’ve also found information on current issues and events in the academic writing realm including diversity and inclusion, research impact, research career paths, copyright, and Read & Publish deals. Whatever your passion, find ways to build the courage you need to pursue it this week. Happy writing!

11 Exercises to enhance your visual thinking

Which comes first for you—images or words? For storytellers, both are important. We craft words on paper to communicate our visions to readers. We want them to see what we see, hear what we hear, experience what we experience. Concentrating on visual thinking is an exercise many of us can use to access our creativity and write better stories.

Keeping your lab and research notes organized

In today’s post, I’m giving you information about some tools you may want to use for your research and lab notes. The final choice if up to you, but I want you to start thinking about how you will organize your information in a way that is easily accessible to you when you need your notes.

Reflections on some favorite writing quotes

Do you collect writer quotes? You should. They can be inspirational and instructive. It’s great to turn to them in times when you feel in the writing doldrums. Here are seven of my favorite writer quotes, and why I like them.

5 Reasons why you should pursue a PhD programme

People fail to understand that there is no direct path to completing some requirements of the program, especially the Ph.D. thesis. But no matter how challenging this course is, there are many reasons why you should dedicate your time and money to pursue a Ph.D. degree. In this article, we explore five of the most important reasons why you should study a Ph.D.

Online learning for all

Moving online opens up all sorts of questions about (in)equality. Not just the bigger issues of digital access and digital literacy, but the nitty gritty of our planning and delivery. In an ideal world we would ensure that our online materials are accessible for all.

Writing the dissertation (thesis) II: Getting started and progress/project planning

I am writing this post from the viewpoint of someone who has supervised theses and dissertations, though in the future I think I will write one for advisors. I’ll start from the baseline that you (undergraduate, Masters student/doctoral candidate) have already done everything except the thesis.

It’s what you know and who you know: AGU co-authorship demographics – An interview with Brooks Hanson, Jory Lerback, and Paige Wooden

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has really put its money where its mouth is when it comes to addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their most recent Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan (published in December 2018) identified five priority goals “that broadly address the following aspects of diversity and inclusion”

Trailblazers share their journeys: Impact scholar community event #1

The inaugural event of the Impact Scholar Community on April 23, 2020, tackled core issues around how early-career scholars can increase their research impact. Tima Bansal and Andy Hoffman, trailblazers in scholarly impact, shared their experiences in a lively virtual dialogue with 140 researchers from around the globe.

Research career crossroads

When I devised this year’s editorial calendar for MethodSpace, I thought a focus on careers might be helpful for new graduates looking for research-oriented positions in and out of academia. Academics and scholars spend a long time preparing for a career, so it is not uncommon to find that the world has changed since we started studying for the doctoral degree. It made sense to look at options for reconciling expectations with new realities.

Publishers allege emergency library is “massive infringement”

On Monday, four major publishers, together with the support of the Association of American Publishers, announced a suit for copyright infringement against the Internet Archive.

Oxford University Press and National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences agree first Read & Publish deal in China

Covering 26 of the institutions of CAS, the three-year deal is the first of its kind in China. It provides complete access to OUP’s prestigious journals collection for participating institutions and over the course of the deal will mean that an increasing amount of the research outputs produced by participating CAS researchers is published open access.