Rebecca Dyson

she/her 🏳️‍🌈
Research Ethics & Integrity @Uni_Newcastle || & Translational Physiologist @ctpUOW
Passionate about good research, done well!
Views are my own 😘

[John B. Holbein @JohnHolbein1]

The academic job market in the good ol' days vs the academic job market today.

[The Gagnon Lab at Centre EPIC @IntegrPhysLab]

Arguably our lab’s biggest publication, however that is defined! We show that heat exposure: 1) nearly doubles myocardial blood flow and 2) can cause myocardial ischemia in adults with coronary artery disease. @AnnalsofIM: https://t.co/i45MU2kjdD

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Academics to students: “carefully structure your research”

Academics to themselves: “these are my 56 browser windows and 900 tabs, organised according to my neurosis”

[Academic Exit @academic_exit]

PhDs: your dissertation topic is less relevant to finding a role outisde of academia than your *skills*.

Here's a 🧵 on how to translate skills you already have into corpspeak using examples from my own PhD work experience:

[Academic Exit @academic_exit]

Folks who have made the move from academia to industry: what's 1 piece of advice you'd share with PhD students looking to make a similar leap?

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Academic jobs pay terribly, but don't panic, you have no chance of getting one

[Retraction Watch @RetractionWatch]

That paper no one could stop talking about for 24 hours (https://t.co/btOqnPc1cA) has been retracted.
https://t.co/y9KyN2MfDV

[HEaT Lab @kiwiheatlab]

New in @JPhysiol by @HEPRU_uOttawa: Hormonal intrauterine devices and heat exchange during exercise 👏

https://t.co/5ErTJC2XHw

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Academics: "I have an amazing idea for a new article"

The two-year old article that needs one afternoon of edits to be ready to submit:

[Muhammad Sajeer @Sajeerp_]

I'm in my 4th year of #PhD, worked in different labs around the world, heard from several postdocs, PhDs and UG's...

Dear supervisors, here are my suggestions to make your research lab a better place & attract talent!
@PhDVoice
@PhD_Genie @AcademicChatter
@AcademicDilemma

[Thomas Bandholm @TBandholm]

📣Exciting news! @juliemidtgaard, @MichaelRathleff and I are thrilled to introduce the “Excellence and Kindness in Research Training (ELIS)” initiative. This is a new approach to academic mentorship combining excellence with kindness. More info 👉 https://t.co/gjzLbMahj5

[Rebecca Dyson @becdyo]

@SJEllery_PhD Well done @SJEllery_PhD 🥳 so well deserved! We are in the lab right now cooking you up some hot results!

[Jen Heemstra @jenheemstra]

Being a good researcher does not make you a good leader, but you can use your research skills to grow your leadership skills.

Just as with research, leadership involves learning new information, seeking feedback, and testing and evaluating new approaches.

You’ve got this!

[Anna Clemens, PhD @scientistswrite]

As an academic writing coach, here are the 5⃣ most common mistakes I see researchers make in their scientific papers.

🧵A thread.

[Dr Lisa Nivison-Smith @LNivisonSmith]

Someone suggested to me instead of referring to a paper as "Smith et al"
it should be "Smith et pals" and this is a hill I am willing to die on

#AcademicChatter

[Chenxin Li, PhD (@chenxinli2.bsky.social) @ChenxinLi2]

Not enough people know about https://t.co/22Y7FJ4Ysl
Open source vector graphics. Free alternatives to BioRender.

[The Struggling Scientists @TheStrugglingS4]

As a PhD student or academic, you have a lot on your plate. 

But getting shit done doesn't have to be overwhelming. 

Here are some methods that will help you stay focused and productive:
Thread 🧵

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

Garbage papers are produced not by bad scientists.

It's the metrics-focused evaluation that creates them.

Can you imagine 400,000 fake research papers?

- 70,000 of them was published last year. This is 2% of ALL papers in 2023.

- Paper mills produce huge number of papers at speed and have special templates for that.

- For most journals, 2% come from paper mills. But for some, it is a whooping 40%.

And this is the lower boundary, according to Adam Day (director of scholarly data-services company Clear Skies). His software only sees paper mills that have a known template.

▫️

Paper mills feed on the existing reward system in academia. When everyone looks at citations and number of papers, some people turn to paper mills to become ‘successful’.

▫️

I see many scientists who:

- produce meaningless research.

- boast about the NUMBER of papers they publish per year

- and feel anxiety when they produce fewer papers/year than before

▫️

What can we do?

- Stop using the number of papers to measure success (it is used in many countries, including the EU)

- Stop giving grants based on the number of citations, awards and invited talks

- Include new criteria such as community service/contribution, publishing of codes, participation in committees, etc. Give them a big share of the total score.

- Include the “depth of research” as a crucial factor (reviewers should provide a thorough feedback on this).

▫️

#AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter #researchpaper