Spotted on a whiteboard in a PI’s office, written in massive letters (colours as in original):
Book chapters and reviews are for people with no data - NEVER SAY YES
Cath
Representin' Vancouver, BC
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The week in reviewMay 25, 2013Girl, Interrupting
Richard Dawkins – man of literacy (you only need the special key)May 25, 2013Reciprocal Space
The HuntersMay 25, 2013Athene Donald's Blog
Impact for WomenMay 24, 2013The End Of The Pier Show
Gothick GratitudeMay 22, 2013Science: Occam's corner | guardian.co.uk
UK science is falling behind in the global race | Matthew BrownMay 17, 2013The Occam's Typewriter Irregulars
Seen in DevonMay 14, 2013Not ranting - honestly
I blame the parentsMay 10, 2013Mind the Gap
In which things flow naturally forwardMay 9, 2013Adventures in Wonderland
My old new little friend – the Voigtländer VF-101May 6, 2013Trading Knowledge
MDPI – another OA publisherApril 25, 2013Confessions of a (former) Lab Rat
Keep on runningApril 21, 2013Science behind the Scenes
Pregnancy? If you ask me, we’re doing it wrongApril 16, 2013Deep thoughts and silliness
Off to the other side of the worldApril 8, 2013Blogging the PhD
Margaret McCartney at Skeptics in the PubApril 7, 2013City Limits
Silent Spring: WarblersOctober 17, 2012
Bragging Rights Central
VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week:
Nina and Grant for the following exchange: Nina: "Life should be a conference, everyone wearing nametags all the time, with their first name, last name, nickname, country of origin and country of residence. Birthdate optional."
Grant: Nina, I’m sure tech types will suggest we’ll all be bumping cell phones to exchange names in a few years. (Eurgh.)
One more: you know that thing where the person can’t quite read your name tag and leans in close over your chest to read it…
Nina: "ok, how about tattooing your name onto your forehead?"
Grant: "How about a sub-dermal name implant invisible when not active that glows when triggered by trained neural signals beaming your name to the people opposite you?
Failing that we could all wear electrode scalp caps that carry a flip up sign… (Taking as my cue the brain-computer interfaces emotiv and others are marketing.)"
[NB as a chronic tartler, I approve of all the above methods]
Alyssa for "It’s cloudy again
We see it’s cold and dreary
But – we have windows!!!"Ricardipus for "Bugger me, the grant’s
Finally done. Thank goodness.
Now back to fun stuff."Bean-mom for "I just clicked on the article on circular RNAs–I’d seen the headline earlier but hadn’t yet read it–and just as I expected, I’m all WTF?! MicroRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, now we’ve got circular RNAs. . . I feel like someone should just write a review titled, “RNA: WTF?”"
Nina again for "edit: my advisor has improved his standing desk further by standing on a wooden board that balances on a small (but sturdy) plastic tube, to make him wobble while standing, so to keep working those balancing muscles, or something like that. The tube comes from one of my experiments. I will miss that “wtf I’ll create my own standing desk – pilates work-out” attitude, I must admit."
Bob O'H for "Reminds me of my youth playing boardgames. There was one called Civilisation, which a friend described as “almost as long as the real thing”."
Chall "it surely looks like the Leafs MIGHT go to play offs for the first time in 7 years…. if I didn’t jinx it by saying it here of course. That said, I find myself wondering how bad it will be to end 5th place if Boston stays 4th. It sort of feels better to play the 3rd (Capitals right now) than Bruins but right now I’ll settle for PLAYOFFS and miracle :)"
[the Leafs making the playoffs is a miracle indeed]
KJHaxton for "Good question! I’d put:
– occasional baker of cakes for meetings
– fair to moderate tolerance for bullshit
– low tolerance for unfairness and willing to get very cross about it (folds arms and glowers at the screen)
– best selection of tea bags in desk drawer (8 kinds at last count)
– prone to wearing scarves and shirts that don’t matchAh well, I’m not sure I’d find a new job on the basis of those :)"
Ricardipus again for "Pros:
- rarely swears in public
- has few friends, so unlikely to have loud, belly-laughing conversations on phone or in person
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad scienceCons:
- occasionally swears in public
- has few friends, so likely to have poor social interactions with co-workers
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad scienceI’d also probably include “easily suckered into serving on irrelevant committees” into each category, too."
Bean-mom again for "–Friendly.
–Doesn’t bake, but if you have a potluck I’ll bring killer spring rolls (both crispy fried pork ones, and the vegetarian fresh rice-paper ones).
–Doesn’t bake, but husband bakes. Occasionally, you may be a recipient of his talent.
–Will cheerfully listen to other people’s dramas, but won’t cause any of my own. Not at work, anyway."
and Nina yet again for "As I may have mentioned before, I’m pretty sure my cv point “Love baking (chocolate) cakes” earned me my PhD position, and it definitely often raised questions in interviews (“so, how often do you bake cake? What kind of chocolate do you use?”)"
Post(s) of the Week: Beth Snow for "Modern conveniences" (how on earth did we survive, let alone study and write theses, before Skype and cloud computing?!)
Steve Caplan for "Science education: the generalist vs the specialist" (are 3 year or 4 year degrees better for students?)
Bean-mom for "Leaving scientific research... again" (science SUCKS sometimes)
Eva Amsen, writing at the Occam's Typewriter Irregulars for "The two ideas to fix the gender balance that do not make me cringe" (the panel pledge and the Finkbeiner test)
Bob O'Hara for "Making reviewing boring stuff less boring" (would a stripped-down manuscript format work better for the, um, less exciting papers out there?)
Alyssa for "Just the pants, thanks" (absolutely hilarious take on the modern clothes shopping experience)
Eva Amsen again for "My self-updating address book" (how LinkedIn can be useful)
CromerCrox for "Plagues" (how's God been cursing you lately?)
Prof-like Substance for "If you don't talk to your kids about it someone else will" (anticipating school-yard talk about religion and other big issues)
and CromerCrox again for "Conferences" (the problem of sexism at conferences)
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Hahaha… Frankly, I thought they were for first year grad students – which may be entirely synonymous!
Heh – I'm sure there's a substantial overlap, yeah!
They are a great way for clinical fellows and grad students to immerse themselves in a field though.My boss has the same rule and breaks it regularly because a friend has asked or it's the major textbook/bible in our branch of medicine. I've got just such a review (actually 2!) out this month as a result of this broken rule so it's probably not that bad to say yes once in a while…-antipodean
what? my comment disappeared… pah!"I guess I should be happy thne that I've never been asked to write a review or book chapter. hmm…
"
I've been asked to write a book chapter based on a presentation at a symposium (I said yes); I've also been asked to write a review article (I declined).
The funny thing is, the book chapter (and the review article) were on subjects in which I hold no formal qualification, being far removed from my PhD area, but concerning which I'd written subsequently, such that people were under the impression that I had first-hand knowledge of the topic. The book chapter has gotten quite a few citations, far more than the single paper on the topic I did for my PhD. Hmmmm. I sense a blog post coming on.
Book chapters and reviews are for people with no data – NEVER SAY YESHilarious!!!I agree with antipoean though. It's a great thing to have the students or postdocs do occasionally, it helps them get into the field. But I must agree that, if you are a research active PI, it's really hard to carve out the months needed, especially for reviews. Most book chapters and reviews are not widely read or cited. I think it depends on the publication venue — there is a prominent journal in my field that publishes high visibility review papers, so it's a real honor being invited to write one like that. Each such review generates hundreds or thousands of citations. Such a review I'd totally do.
Antipodean, true. I've never taken the lead on a review article, although I've contributed to a few, so I have some idea of how much work they are though!I don't know about the PI who had the sign up in his office, but my main boss has a really hard time saying no to all the requests that pour in.Chall, you should definitely spin it that way
Cromercrox, yeah, but unless you have data, the sign still applies 
I've written introductions to research papers that are not in fields in which I'm qualifed, and I actually really enjoyed it. It also forces you to assess ALL the literature, without any of the preconceived biases and assumptions that can creep in when you've very familiar with one area of research.I look forward to your post! GMP, they can definitely be a very useful exercise, and a nice wee addition to your citation stats! Especially if it's in a very prestigious journal, like the one you mentioned. Thousands of citations – yikes!
Book chapters are definitely overrated. My opinion of reviews is considerably higher, but only if they actually have something to say as opposed to a laundry list of the literature.My colleague and I were invited to edit a book based on that session we organized for a meeting, and we declined as fast as we could!
Ha ha! Some of us in the lab wish we could get our PI to subscribe to that view… But everyone is right that it is a good way to force a grad student or new postdoc to get up to speed in a new field. I was grumbling about this review I'm writing now (in a very low-profile journal, to boot), but now that I've finished the first draft, I have to admit that it really was a good exercise to immerse myself in the literature (you don't know how little you know until you write a review on it!)
My most cited paper is a review. Of a meeting. I think I wrote 2 paragraphs for it, and one of those was cut out.My third most cited paper is a meta-analysis, which is a review with far too much data.
I think the cause & effect are backwards though – chapters and reviews take up so much time it kills data production, and voila, no data…I just wrote a review, but being invited was such a big deal I could hardly turn it down. But the perception that nothing else has gotten published is driving me to push hard for the next research paper!
O how many hours I spent on this review I have written. Great way to immerse in a field you are not acquainted with. Yeah right. Great way to drown! In hindsight (after three horrible horrible years) yes I learned stuff, yes it helped me make up my mind on the topic. No I would never ever ever recommend it.
I am crushed. I've been guilty of both. But… I can blame my boss(es)! Yay! THEY made me do it.
my humble experience with book chapters and reviews is that they never actually happen. When I started my PhD (nearly 5 years ago now) Prof was asked to write a review and a book chapter about my thesis subject and so he asked me to do it, and I started (indeed a good way to get into the subject) but it still hasn't happened.The way I saw it though it seemed like a good opportunity to gorge on "unpublished data" that other PhD's and postdocs had left behind and no one ever got around to publish.
Eco, yeah, making a review really interesting and novel is a very rare feat indeed. But it's such a joy when it happens and you find a good one!Bean-Mom, I'm glad you're finding it a useful exercise!Bob, mine too. But there's a proper 1st author research paper in second place, so that's OK.Anon, excellent point! (Although it probably applies more to trainees than to PIs, very few of whom generate their own data).SUIRAUQA, that's the primary benefit of not being the boss
lin, three years?! That's harsh! I'm glad it had some benefits though!Nina, huh, I haven't had that same experience – both my PhD and my postdoc labs produced a few reviews while I was there, with the duties shared out among the trainees (one that I'm a very low-ranked author on was a true team effort – we had meetings about it and everything!).