Category Archives: ICYMI

Status Report – February 2017

Posted on 14 February 2017 by Stephen

I said when I started this blog in 2008 that I would not promise to post regularly, so as to avoid the endless repetition of apologies for failing to write. And I’m not about to start apologising now, even though … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No.10 – New Year’s Resolution

Posted on 6 January 2017 by Stephen

Along with many of my academic colleagues from across the nation, I was asked by the Times Higher Education to set down at least one new year’s resolution for 2017. I drew inspiration from Richard Hamming (whom I wrote about … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No.8: Being Professorial

Posted on 14 November 2016 by Stephen

I was among several people who contributed to a feature in this weeks’ Times Higher Education on being a professor. The brief I was given was (briefly): “Questions you might want to address are whether you should somehow have to … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No.7: a day in the life of a naked scientist

Posted on 2 September 2016 by Stephen

In case you missed it last week, I had a segment in the Naked Scientist’s 15th anniversary radio show. Or rather, three segments, based on a day-in-the-life-of-a-scientist piece that I wrote a few months back on the Guardian, that were … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 6: What is the meaning of Brexit?

Posted on 4 August 2016 by Stephen

Today EMBO Reports has published my commentary on the implications for scientific research of Britain’s recent decision to leave the EU. Although it should be freely available, the piece is  temporarily stuck behind a paywall. So, for those without a subscription, here is the … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 5: Asking universities to be open about research assessment

Posted on 14 May 2016 by Stephen

I first wrote about the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) when it was launched in May 2013. DORA is a simple statement asking the different players in the business of academic research to free themselves from the damaging … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 4: Books to read before university

Posted on 17 April 2016 by Stephen

This week’s Times Higher Education has a nice cover feature listing books recommended by various scholars to students preparing for university. More particularly, as the author of the piece, Matthew Reisz, explained to me in an email, “We are asking … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 2: Time for positive action on negative results

Posted on 7 March 2016 by Stephen

Today I had a short opinion piece in Chemical and Engineering News on publishing negative results, a topic that I covered about this time last year in the Guardian on the occasion of the publication my lab’s first paper on an … Continue reading →

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