Rags to Riches, PhD Style
SPOTLIGHT ON PRAMOD KUMAR, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION & RESEARCH MOHALI
As October rolls around post-doc Pramod Kumar of the Femtosecond Laser Laboratory in India welcomes some serious decisions. With three positions at his fingertips—one at the Paris Tech Institute, another at the University of Essex, and the third at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali—Pramod has been bombarded with opportunities that most young scholars dream of all because of a few paper uploads on Academia.edu.
“Only Academia.edu helped me to get the three positions that are in my hands right now,” says Pramod.
From job opportunity to job opportunity to yet another job opportunity, all sparked by his Academia.edu profile, the story of laser physicist Pramod Kumar is a rag-to-riches tale of the PhD student, brightening the plight of today’s soon-to-be PhDs and forever adjuncts.
Prior to joining Academia.edu Pramod was like many young scholars—frustrated that after years of sweat and tears no one was reading (and citing) his work.
Seeking advice, Pramod turned to his PhD advisor and asked, “How can I get a citation of my papers? How do people know about my research?”
His advisor, Professor Ghosh of Jawaharlal Nehru University, then told him about Academia.edu, a place where he could share his work with other researchers. Curious and desperate, Pramod joined and that’s when things got exciting.
“I uploaded my first research article on Academia.edu and then I found that a lot of people started sharing my research— people were reading my research and my citations tremendously increased!” says Pramod with big eyes and an infectious smile.
“Now many people are citing my papers— I have around 20 citations already. This is the thing I really wanted to share, because Academia.edu actually gave me this amazing citation of my research. Before joining Academia.edu I couldn’t get a single citation!”
And while citations will certainly improve Pramod’s chances on the job market, it has been the simple act of making his work available to a community of laser physicists through Academia.edu that has landed him four unsolicited job opportunities, including his current post-doc position at the prestigious Femtosecond Laser Facility in India.
After giving a talk about his PhD research at a meeting in Delhi in March of 2011, Pramod was approached by his now current team leader, Professor Kamal P. Singh, who had recognized Pramod’s face from Academia.edu; prior to the meeting, Professor Singh had come across Pramod’s Academia.edu profile since they both share similar research interests. And, even though Pramod had been working in a different field of laser physics, Professor Singh was familiar with his work through Academia.edu and asked Pramod to join his lab right there on the spot.
From that point on Pramod’s story only gets better. Earlier this year in February, Frederick Grillot, an Associate Professor at Paris Tech Institute, found Pramod’s Academia.edu profile and, intrigued by his work, invited him give a faculty talk at Paris Tech. So Pramod flew out to Paris, gave a lecture, and blew everyone away, which garnered him not only a best lecturer award but also an offer for a visiting faculty position.
“This is all because of Academia.edu,” says Pramod of his opportunities at Paris Tech. “They found my profile on Academia.edu, directly contacted me to give a talk, and then offered me a position afterwards.”
And if this weren’t amazing enough, Pramod hasn’t given Paris Tech an answer yet because he has two other positions brewing—a full-time gig at his current lab and a Newton International Fellowship at the University of Essex.
Contacted by Professor Mike Adams of the University of Essex, Pramod was invited to write a collaborative proposal for a Newton International Fellowship, of which the outcome will also be decided in October. Following the nature of Pramod’s winning streak, Mike Adams also found Pramod through Academia.edu.
Nearly speechless at how his fate has quickly turned with a simple Academia.edu profile that has plugged him into an international community of laser physicists, Pramod says, “This is really amazing. People are really searching for my work, they are really citing my research articles found through Academia.edu. Academia.edu is not only useful to make your own page; it makes it easy to stay in touch with people who are working in your research field.”
“I got all of these opportunities only because of Academia.edu,” adds Pramod. “That’s because this site has really helped me spark the interest of people who are working in my field. So now I have a lot of opportunities in my hands!”
And while Pramod’s direction is still undecided, it’s clear that whatever path he takes will certainly lead to a robust career.
Academic Bio:
Pramod Kumar received a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, India where he studied the optical control of the complex dynamics of two delay-coupled diode lasers. Currently Pramod is a post-doc at the Femtosecond Laser Laboratory, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali.
Pramod’s work can be viewed here.
Sharing to Advance Science
SPOTLIGHT ON SHIVENDRA TEWARI, MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN
No need to reinvent the wheel, thinks post-doc Shivendra Tewari of the Medical College of Wisconsin as he posts not only his publications on Academia.edu, but also his models, code, and experimental datasets.
“I see sharing data as an advancement of science. If I’ve already done something, why should someone re-do all of the work again. They should just use whatever I’ve done and then move forward from that point,” rationalizes Shivendra.
It’s this kind of mindset— sharing to make progress— that Shivendra thinks is essential to advancing science, his main motive for posting all of his works on Academia.edu. However, open access to his works has had some unexpected and delightful repercussions, namely a boost in citations from his expanded readership. Sharing all aspects of his work has actually helped Shivendra build his name across many fields— like computer science, physiology, and neuroscience— a feat that is of the utmost importance for young academics like himself.
“I think it’s really good that you can provide things like code and datasets on Academia.edu because sometimes publishers don’t even ask for code. So if there is one single place where you can put papers and code, then people can get a lot of information from a single site,” says Shivendra.
Unavailable in most journals, the code that Shivendra provides on Academia.edu seems to be helping researchers around the world execute all kinds of models.
“I like to know that people from different countries are reading my code. If they have some problems then they contact me, and I tell them what to do to get it working,” says Shivendra.
For example, Shivendra developed a large model for synaptic plasticity during his graduate studies and uploaded it and its accompanying code on Academia.edu. Doing so has enabled other researchers to model synapses specific to their own research without having to start from scratch. Saving time and building off of Shivendra’s work, these researchers can execute their models using particular parts of his code. And, in the process of expediting the research of his fellow computational biologists, Shivendra is also awarded a citation each time his code is used.
But citations aren’t all that Shivendra has unexpectedly received from posting his work on Academia.edu. Trends in document views are helping him shape the focus of his future research and refine his code.
“If a paper or code is being viewed a lot, then such work should be done more. It shows the relevance of the work,” says Shivendra.
And it’s this kind of feedback that makes Shivendra answer “Absolutely” when asked if Academia.edu is particularly helpful for younger academics like himself.
“Because PhD students and post-docs are at an early stage in their research, being on Academia.edu can shape their career in a much better way. For example, depending on the number of hits an article receives, they can decide to start working on something that is of more interest or has more application.”
Academic Bio:
Shivendra Tewari is a post-doc in computational and systems biology at the Medical College of Wisconsin where his research spans the fields of computer science, physiology and neuroscience.
Shivendra’s work can be viewed here.
Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what sparked the curiosity of Academia.edu users this week:
As the post-game analysis on the Boston bombings grinds on, a conventional wisdom is starting to take shape based on the heated claims of pundits, officials, and security experts, as well as the post-9/11 liturgy on terrorist theory. It goes something like this: Terrorists are highly intelligent foes who wield violence strategically, bringing immediate and significant attention to their political ends relative to their limited means.
The effort to comfort and amuse White viewers, to favor their feelings and desires, resonates throughout Hollywood’s long and erratic treatment of the Black experience. Perhaps no filmmaker‘s career provides better evidence of this than Quentin Tarantino. Notwithstanding his talents and his ability to remix stories, traditions and aesthetics, his opportunities, his platform, and his voice are aided and abetted by the privileges of Whiteness.
Gay marriage is an issue about which very few people have little or no opinion. To make matters worse, almost everybody’s position, whether for or against, is based on a really bad argument. Even if the argument is not bad insofar as the position espoused is not prima facie incoherent, it is usually irrelevant insofar as it conflicts with the liberal tradition of American politics and legal theory.
China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 has generated an investing fever in China. As a sign of this enthusiasm, China’s attracted a record of US$54 billion foreign direct investment last year. For the first time China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s most favored foreign investment destination. In the meantime, China’s foreign trade also reached a record of US$600 billion. In the near future, we expect this upward trend will continue. Foreign businesses will be eager to pour more money into China in order to get a share of China’s lucrative domestic market and to take advantage of the abundant supply of very inexpensive labors.
This article aims to review Herzberg’s two-factor theory to employee motivation in today’s enterprises. The main purpose of this article is to point out the motivator-hygiene factors that have a significant impact on the overall level of employee job satisfaction. The review shows that Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory best explained the process of motivating employees. It also indicates that achievement and company policy have significant impact on the overall level of employee job satisfaction, suggesting that managers need to focus more on these factors to better motivate employees.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory is one of the most highly influential and widely celebrated theories in the field of social psychology. Thus, it is no surprise that its influence has extended into multiple fields, including communication and especially the study of media effects. Still, despite the enthusiasm with which media scholars have embraced social cognitive theory, its integration into media research is still in its infancy. The purpose of this chapter is first, to lay out the historical background and basic tenets of social cognitive theory. We will then explore the ways in which media effects scholars have integrated it into their research and consider the ways in which scholars might build on the existing foundation of social cognitive theory-based media research to better illuminate media effects processes and outcomes.
Multiple regression is commonly used in social and behavioral data analysis. In multiple regression contexts, researchers are very often interested in determining the “best” predictors in the analysis. This focus may stem from a need to identify those predictors that are supportive of theory. Alternatively, the researcher may simply be interested in explaining the most variability in the dependent variable with the fewest possible predictors, perhaps as part of a cost analysis. Two approaches to determining the quality of predictors are (1) stepwise regression and (2) hierarchical regression. This paper will explore the advantages and disadvantages of these methods and use a small SPSS dataset for illustration purposes.
Teacher Experience and the Teacher-Student Relationship in the Classroom Environment
Total Views: 15,888
In the classroom environment the interpersonal relationship between teacher and students is an important element contributing to the learning process of students. In this chapter we explore the significance of the experience of the teacher in realising relationships with students appropriate from the perspective of student outcomes. We use data from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study to analyse differences between teachers in degree of dominant and co-operative behaviour in different stages of their professional career.
The fashion apparel industry has significantly evolved, particularly over the last 20 years. The changing dynamics of the fashion industry have forced retailers to desire low cost and flexibility in design, quality, and speed to market, key strategies to maintain a profitable position in the increasingly demanding market.This article reviews the literature on changes that have happened in the fashion apparel industry since the 1990s, highlighting the emergence of a concept of ‘throwaway’ or fast fashion. It describes fast fashion from a supplier as well as a consumer’s perspective, and draws attention to several potential research issues.
I argue that Mill introduced the distinction between quality and quantity of pleasures in order to fend off the then common charge that Utilitarianism is “a philosophy for swine” and to accommodate the (still) widespread intuition that the life of a human is better, in the sense of being intrinsically more valuable, than the life of an animal. I argue that in this he fails because in order to do successfully he would have to show not only that the life of a human is preferable to that of an animal on hedonistic grounds, but also that it is in some sense nobler or more dignified to be a human, which he cannot do without tacitly presupposing non-hedonistic standards of what it means to lead a good life.
Vehicle of Visibility and a Road to Funding
SPOTLIGHT ON COREY SCHOLES, SYDNEY ORTHOPAEDIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE
“Viewed over 100 times on Academia.edu!” tweeted out Corey Scholes of the Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute (SORI) last week. Excited by the attention one of his papers is receiving, document views on Academia.edu mean much more than an ego boost for Corey and his research team.
As the Director of Research for SORI, Corey’s main priority is cultivating the institute’s research program, which is currently limited by a lack of equipment and its private, nonprofit state. Unaffiliated with a university and requiring high-tech equipment to conduct orthopaedic research, the growth of SORI hinges on gaining external funding, a difficult feat for any small, private, nonprofit organization. To top it off, SORI’s funding hurdles are heightened even more by its youth— initiating a research program in 2009, SORI’s research is not yet widely known. But despite these obstacles, Corey and his team have received small grant after small grant, a success that Corey attributes to growing online visibility on platforms like Academia.edu.
“Our institute is very small and it’s quite new in the area that we’re now publishing in, so we’re really just trying to make an impression and punch above our weight in terms of our audience— who is reading about us and talking about us,” says Corey.
“We find it difficult to access the funds that universities can tap into through the government system in Australia as well as internationally,” adds Corey. “So Academia.edu is a good vehicle to raise our profile in terms of getting us higher up in the Google search list and connecting with other academics in more innovative and novel ways.”
As a productive institute with many publications to show, this growing visibility has helped Corey showcase SORI’s might and make some headway on the funding front.
“Whenever I put in a grant application— both locally or nationally— or even submit a paper, I get Google search alerts on Academia.edu. People are already using this process,” says Corey.
And the ‘process’ Corey speaks of is this: with a surge in document and profile views following each grant application and paper submission, Corey suspects reviewers are Googling his name and landing on his Academia.edu profile.
From there Corey thinks the pieces are in place for granting agencies to see not only the interest his research is generating, like the 100 document views he tweeted about, but also the larger picture of Corey’s (and SORI’s) work.
“The review of an Academia.edu profile shows how the researcher is linking to their own community and to others online, which I certainly think would be useful to someone who’s reviewing a grant application. Academia.edu really provides the opportunity to construct a narrative out of a series of publications or abstracts, which no other portal really does.”
And the story he is telling on Academia.edu seems to be giving SORI just the edge it needs. With the nonprofit’s first publications coming out in 2011, and a wave of papers to follow in 2012, over the last 12 months SORI has received the most grants since its existence. Recently awarded two small grants— one from a local hospital and the other from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons— Corey saw a spike in his Academia.edu profile views after applying to each one.
Moving beyond grants, visibility on Academia.edu has been helping Corey and his team build their name in other ways too.
“Our expectation for using Academia.edu is that as other academics or researchers talk about us and as grant panelist search for us, it will create spontaneous and chaotic links. We’re already starting to see signs of those spontaneous collaborations.”
And some of these ‘spontaneous collaborations’ have come in the form of co-authorships (which are in their nascency) and research collaborations with the commercial industry. Approached more and more by commercial entities, Corey attributes their interest in collaboration to his high visibility on Google. Unaffiliated with a university, commercial industries as well as clinicians lack wide access to journals and often turn to search engines like Google, which then, in Corey’s case, lead them to Academia.edu.
“Academia.edu is acting as a catalyst for us to start really making some end roads in terms of where we’re trying to be and what sort of story we’re trying to tell.”
Academic Bio:
Corey Scholes joined the Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute (SORI) as the Director of Research in 2009. Prior to joining SORI, Corey received a PhD from Queensland University of Technology where he investigated knee biomechanics and functional landing.
Corey’s work can be viewed here.
Networks of Opportunity
SPOTLIGHT ON KIVEN STROHM, UNIVERSITY OF MONTREAL
A source of networks and opportunities for Kiven Strohm of the University of Montreal, an active presence on Academia.edu has landed Kiven in workshops and conferences spanning disciplines and seas, helping this soon-to-be PhD build his name as he enters the job market.
“Academia.edu has given me access to people of multiple levels of shared interest, access to people that I wouldn’t otherwise have contact with. There really hasn’t been any other resources available to do that,” says Kiven.
Working in a rather novel field, Kiven initially joined Academia.edu to connect with people working in related research areas, such as Middle East anthropology, art in Israel and Palestine, and national identity. While his research area may seem marginal, the network of cross-disciplinary scholars he’s discovered on Academia.edu is not, sparking unexpected opportunities like his collaboration with a Hungarian political scientist working in South Africa.
Kiven met his Hungarian colleague, Anna Selmeczi, when one of her papers appeared in his news feed. Though working in disparate disciplines and geographies, the two shared a common conceptual approach. Intrigued, Kiven emailed Anna, which unraveled a series of conversations that eventually landed Anna on a panel organized by Kiven at the American Anthropological Association meeting in 2011, a conference that Anna would have otherwise never thought to attend.
Working in different disciplines and publishing in different journals, Kiven says, “If we weren’t both on Academia.edu, our paths would have never crossed.”
It’s this sharing of research and ideas across disciplinary boundaries that Kiven thinks is the key to growth as an academic. “I think we limit ourselves by just publishing articles in journals— the access of that that article to people is quite limited if they don’t go to that journal itself.”
Continuing to collaborate to this day, Anna also finds these cross-disciplinary exchanges enriching. “My exchanges with Kiven are very productive indeed. We both work in a segment of our respective fields that is rather novel and arguably marginal, with many issues yet to be figured out and explored. In carrying out such work, our discussions are very helpful.”
In addition to meeting Anna, Kiven has also received productive feedback on his work and has been invited to conferences and workshops through people he’s met on Academia.edu. This exposure, believes Kiven, will help his burgeoning career in more ways than one.
“Being on Academia.edu been very productive in building my name within the field. I manage to get people coming to my page every day,” says Kiven.
Kiven expects this daily traffic to be especially important as he enters the job market later this month.
“Given the market and what’s happening to PhD students, we have to be really conscious of where we are and what we’re doing and how we’re getting our work out there, because it’s quite competitive,” says Kiven.
Tipped off by previous job applications, it seems that Kiven’s Academia.edu profile is already giving him that extra edge, a space where he can show hiring and grant committees the breadth of his scholarship, not only through publications and conference presentations, but also through the interest he’s generating— “That’s important too, for potential employers to get an idea if people are actually interested in what I’m doing!”
Academic Bio:
Kiven Strohm is a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Montreal. His dissertation explores the relationship between art and politics among Palestinian artists living and working in Israel.
Kiven’s work can be viewed here.
Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what caught the attention of Academia.edu users this week:
As law enforcement and counter terrorism officials continue the massive manhunt and investigation into the twin bombings in Boston, there’s speculation as to whether the attacks were the work of “homegrown” actors, that is, terrorists residing in the country.
The first season of fieldwork conducted in June 2011 at Wadi al-Jar has focused on the exploration of a new large-scale installation on the Red Sea coast dating back to the Fourth Dynasty. Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard report on the discovery of the oldest harbour remains found in Egypt.
Expanded and edited list of 15 definitive predictions made by Discrete Scale Relativity. Additional reference material and links have been added. Four of the predictions are already vindicated or are strongly supported by observational evidence.
The Common Pain of Surrealism and Death: Acetaminophen Reduces Compensatory Affirmation Following Meaning Threats
Total Views: 387
The meaning maintenance model argues that any violation of expectations leads to an affective experience that motivates compensatory affirmation. We explore whether the neural mechanism that responds to meaning threats can be inhibited by acetaminophen, in the same way that it inhibits physical pain, or the distress caused by social rejection.
Responses from a survey of gang management strategies were collected from U.S. prison systems holding 1.19 million inmates. The results provided insight into the prevalence of gang members in prisons, gang structure, as well as the strategies used to manage the threat that these groups pose. Officials from most prison systems reported an increase in the proportion of security threat group members over the past five years and that these offenders were more disruptive and sophisticated than five years ago.
The ‘Born Frees’: The Prospects for Generational Change in Post Apartheid South Africa
Total Views: 1,133
South Africa’s 1996 Constitution ushered in a democratic regime that brought new freedoms and rights and greatly expanded opportunities for political participation. In 1998, South Africa also implemented a new school curriculum intended, among other things, to promote democratic and other constitutional values. At the same time, South Africa has undergone rapid demographic change as growing proportions of young people enter the electorate with no working memory of apartheid. Theories of socialisation and democratic habituation would lead us to expect significant pro-democratic shifts in South Africa’s political culture, especially amongst the youngest generation, who are popularly known in South Africa as the ‘Born Frees.’
This paper explores the unusually high levels of cosmetic surgery in South Korea - for both women and men. We argue that existing explanations which draw on feminist and post-colonial positions, presenting cosmetic surgery as pertinent only to female and non-Western bodies found lacking by patriarchal and racist/ imperialist economies, miss important cultural influences.
Today, more than 60 years after the European Coal and Steel Community set the first step in federating Europe by means of economic cooperation; the European project finds itself at the centre of numerous academic and political discussions. In fact, in a time of economic, financial and social instability, political mistrust on the European continent is bigger than ever. The European citizens, who cannot rely on their national leaders to solve international issues, seem ‘condemned’ to being represented by supranational institutions, the legitimacy of which is increasingly being questioned. We will try to take a closer look at the democratic functioning of the EU institutions and we will –above all– tempt to question to what extent the EU institutions suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’.
Increasing demand in energy facilitated the need of clean energy such as wind energy. Residences, buildings and commercial sites needs more power, but also continuous power. Important facilities such as wireless or radio sets requires small amount of energy, but with a continuous supply. This study was done to investigate the design and development of the vertical axis micro wind turbines. In conclusion, it was seen that the counter rotating impellers provide better power production, an increase of six time that of single impeller ones.
This paper provides a pragmatic approach to analysing qualitative data, using actual data from a qualitative dental public health study for demonstration purposes. The paper also critically explores how computers can be used to facilitate this process, the debate about the verification (validation) of qualitative analyses and how to write up and present qualitative research studies.
‘A Thinking Man’s Choice’
SPOTLIGHT ON LARRY REEDY, DEVRY UNIVERSITY
An academic with an interlude in politics, Larry Reedy has been using his Academia.edu profile to show he’s got a brain, something that’s helped not only his academic endeavors, but his political ones too.
Winning a nomination to run for the Colorado House of Representatives at the end of his Master’s, Larry, who was looking into PhD programs at the time, decided to switch gears and jump on the opportunity. Up against a huge Republican stronghold, running third party, and operating on a budget close to nil, Larry knew he needed extra ammo to beat the odds, something that would show voters his potential to lead despite his lack of a million-dollar backing. And that’s when he discovered a secret weapon— his Academia.edu profile and its analytics, public proof of his smarts as well as a tool to track his campaigning success.
Initially joining Academia.edu one year prior while working on his Master’s, Larry had been using his analytics as a way to gain an edge as he prepared to apply for PhD positions.
“I know that PhD applications are getting tougher and tougher, particularly with the economy. So I was looking for a way to bring some kind of data to the table for a PhD application and show the type and level of work produced and that it is interesting enough to stand on its own two legs on the internet,” says Larry.
“And,” adds Larry, “things like my Academia.edu analytics show that the level and quality of the work I produce is not only high level, but it’s also interesting to a wide variety of audiences.”
So when Larry decided to press pause on his PhD and run for a House seat, he quickly realized that his scholarly work and the interest it has drawn could not only give him an edge in academia, but also in politics.
“I thought that my analytics— that wonderful function that lets you know how people end up on your page whenever someone searches for you— might be a tool that I could use so that whenever I would make blog posts or do virtually anything to instigate some kind of web buzz, I would see it come through my Academia.edu page. I thought it could give me an idea of what’s working and what’s not,” says Larry.
And it worked— every time. Seeing spikes in profile views from people based in America who landed on his Academia.edu page with a succinct Google search of his name, Larry had a strong feeling he was attracting the thoughtful voter.
“I had a great response from many voters who were likely to go in and do research on candidates. Those voters were the ones I think I earned primarily because of my Academia.edu page, a place where they could take a look at what I brought to the table or what contributions I had made to some field of scholarly inquiry. From that they could say, ‘Well, this guy obviously has a brain in his head,’ which is more than what people can say for most politicians.”
Finding his research through Academia.edu, one media member even called Larry “the thinking man’s choice,” a pretty good indicator that his Academia.edu profile was indeed showcasing his smarts and helping him build a reputation.
While Larry was eventually beat by a Republican candidate, he still pulled off a remarkable feat. Running third party and faced with a voter body that was 90% Republican, Larry pulled in approximately 20% of the votes.
Since the campaign ended Larry returned to his position as an adjunct lecturer at Devry University and is once again one the hunt for a suitable PhD program. He plans to include his Academia.edu country analytics and documents views into each and every PhD application.
“The country analytics are the most fascinating part in my mind. Looking at the overall breadth and width of one’s output is simply fascinating. I’ve had quite a few page views from places that I never would have expected.”
And one of those far-reaching views recently came from the Head of the philosophy department at a Durham University. Intrigued by Larry’s work, the Department Head invited Larry to be a guest lecturer if he ever makes it over to the UK.
When asked if being on Academia.edu has helped him build his name, both in academia and beyond, Larry says, “Absolutely. There’s no question about it.”
Academic Bio:
Larry Reedy received a MA in History from the University of Colorado- Colorado Springs in May 2012 and jumped right into running for the District 15 seat in Colorado’s House of Representative election. Following the end of the election in November 2012, Larry joined DeVry University as an adjunct professor of humanities and liberal arts and sciences, as well as is a business analyst and historian for a major hospital in Colorado. Larry completed a tripartite Master’s which assessed: 1) folklore and Medieval British identity; 2) redating the chronology of Heraclitus of Ephesus; and 3) the third pandemic and its effects on India. Larry is currently looking to join a PhD program in Classics.
Larry’s work can be viewed here.
Linking Visibility to Reputation
SPOTLIGHT ON MICHAEL HAUSKELLER, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Michael Hauskeller’s hits on Academia.edu are growing fast, so much so that at one point he was a bit puzzled as to why. So he did a quick Google search of the topic of his most-viewed paper— John Stuart Mill and the Quality of Pleasures— and there was his answer. Of the 14 million hits that the search drew, Michael’s paper on Academia.edu was among the top listed by Google.
“Whenever someone is interested in this topic— and people all over the world are— they immediately get to my paper on Academia.edu. That’s great,” says Michael.
As a tenured associate professor at the University of Exeter, Michael isn’t too concerned with the number of citations and document views that he himself receives. Rather his fascination lies in visibility— and how Academia.edu can bestow it upon scholars. This visibility, believes Michael, is linked to reputation, something he’d like to build across his department when he becomes the Department Head in a few months time.
“When I become the Head of the department, I will launch a concerted effort to get other people to join Academia.edu because I really believe in the site. If we could all join and upload all of our papers from our department, then it would definitely increase our visibility as a department, and I’m sure that will make a difference.”
And the difference, says Michael, is this:
“A lot of academic exchange is about reputation, and the more visible you are, the higher your reputation is, and the higher your reputation is, the easier it gets for you to get grant money.”
Michael adds, “A great part of reputation is certainly visibility. People must know your name, and if they know your name, then the likelihood is greater that they will actually read your stuff.”
And the readership, opportunities, and visibility afforded by Academia.edu, believes Michael, will also help broaden and advance scholarly exchange into the future.
“Open platforms are very important, especially with so much discussion in the past few years about open access and the gold and green models. People need to discuss what we already have, sites like Academia.edu where the ultimate access is no question anymore— it’s directly accessible to everyone. That I think is the model of the future.”
Academic Bio:
Michael Hauskeller is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter where he main area of research is in ethics as well as the philosophy of art, beauty, and perception. His most recent work discusses human enhancement and what we try to achieve with it.
Michael’s work can be viewed here.
The Value of ‘Other’ Academic Endeavors
SPOTLIGHT ON HANS von STORCH, UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG
When you Google leading German climate scientist Hans von Storch of the University of Hamburg you can easily find his 100-plus papers and books across the web. But on Academia.edu you can find something more— his other academic endeavors which lately account for much of his time: interviews, talks, and manuscripts in the pipeline. While not published in an academic journal, Hans believes these activities have worth too, a value that is captured by Academia.edu.
“Academia.edu shows the impact of your work that is not covered by Web of Science and citation indexes of that sort,” says Hans.
As a convenient platform to share his academic activities that aren’t captured by journal publications and their citations, Hans believes Academia.edu gives a more well-rounded measure of an academic’s activity and helps build a broader body of scientific knowledge available for exchange, something that will ultimately advance science. Without such a platform, knowledge of these non-journal based endeavors might simply not exist, or at least be very limited.
“For me the benefit of Academia.edu is not so much the distribution of the material that is in the standard journal. Of course, sometimes it’s beneficial if you have a paper in a journal that is not that well known. Rather it’s that I’m providing access to manuscripts and works that are less easily accessible. Academia.edu is a better way of really telling people of what is in the pipeline, what has been done, or what has not been published in the high-ranking journals. It simply means more manuscripts available for scientific exchange.”
For example, Hans says, “Often when I give talks somewhere else, like at other institutions and so on, people then ask, ‘Can we have a look later of what you told us here?’ Then it’s very convenient to send people to Academia.edu.”
And while interviews and talks obviously aren’t material for journal publications, sometimes even worthy scholarship doesn’t find its way into journals for reasons Academia.edu circumvents.
“A colleague of mine once had a number manuscripts that had difficulty being accepted into journals because of political biases. So Academia.edu is a way of making these kinds of manuscripts available as well,” explains Hans.
Despite being a senior academic who is well known in certain quarters, Hans is still learning about his own impact and readership through Academia.edu, which is why he checks his analytics every day.
“With Web of Science you only learn how many people have quoted what. But with Academia.edu I can see what is viewed, what is actually read or not. Here I learn something additional, something I would not know otherwise.”
And to his surprise, some of his most viewed works are his interviews and talks. “Most people wouldn’t have noticed these if I wouldn’t have had the chance to post them on Academia.edu,” says Hans.
Academic Bio:
Hans von Storch is a professor at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg as well as the director of the Institute of Coastal Research of the Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht. His research includes climate diagnostics, statistical climatology, and the transdisciplinary context of regional climate change. Hans is on the advisory board of the Journal of Climate, Environmental Science and Policy and Meteorologische Zeitschrift, as well as a lead author of the Working Group II of the Fifth Assessment of the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body that undertakes the comprehensive assessment of the risk of climate change caused by humans.
Hans’s work can be viewed here.
*Photo by UHH/KlimaCampus/Ausserhofer
Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what captured the curiosity of Academia.edu users this week:
Prehistory and Coastal Karstic Area: Cosquer Cave and the ‘Calanques’ of Marseilles
Total Views: 4,067
The Cosquer Cave is a French Palaeolithic painted and engraved cave (27.000-18.500 BP) which is located under the sea, in the urgonian limestones of Cap Morgiou. The entrance was submerged at the end of the last glacial stage and is presently 37 m under sea level. A synthesis about the Cosquer Cave environmental studies is presented here.
The slaughter of animals is a fundamental aspect of the economic, social and spiritual life of many people in South Africa. Under apartheid, these events generally occurred in rural areas or urban townships designated for black people. Since the transition to democracy in the 1990s, increased suburban mixing has exposed established middle class residents, notably white people, to cattle slaughter. The article explores the resulting public discourses on these events, such as condemnations, liberal appeals for tolerance, and Africanist claims to citizenship and space.
Social change refers to the transformation of culture and social institutions throughout time, which is usually brought about by collective behavior. The widespread adoption of the cell phone as a tool of communication and entertainment has revolutionized society, redefining patterns of social contact and relationships among individuals. Overall, the cell phone has transformed daily life of individuals to such an extent that it can be thought of as an agent of social change. As a personalized device, it has provided individuals with more personal freedom. Conversely, it has blurred the boundary between personal and public life. Together with everyday uses of the cell phone as a communication device, the gadget has become a fashion tool, a device to shape individuals’ identity and prestige, creating a new subculture especially in the case of adolescents.
The Search for Authenticity: How Hipsters Transformed From A Local Subculture to a Global Consumptive Collective
Total Views: 4,352
New media technologies and the global exchange of goods have transformed the opportunities for individual identity signaling. Previously hidden or physically distant populations may now be seen through online search engines, and images of American popular culture are being exported to far reaching corners of the developed and developing world. Despite these significant social changes, however, familiar patterns of identity signaling persist. These patterns raise questions of how cultures and subcultures develop and evolve in an ever more complex social landscape. Using the hipster subculture as a case study, this paper will examine the role of taste and of consumption in allowing subgroups to maintain internal cohesion and social distinction.
This paper identifies, through a brief review of a variety of urban spaces in France and in the USA, the street, the shopping mall, the train station, the café, the square and the garden,two main questions facing designers and scholars of public space today: How to conceive spaces that are at once accessible to everyone and which also foster a sense of shared concern, the emergence of a local public sphere?
People who are too concerned with how well they are doing will be less successful and feel less competent than those who focus on the task itself… Some psychologists call it a conflict between ego-orientation, or between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation… but in all cases, what counts is whether attention is turned away from the task at hand and focused on the self and its future rewards, or whether it is instead trained on the task itself. The latter attitude seems the more fruitful.
Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting the surging rate of unemployment in the country. The provision of entrepreneurial development through education will advance the economy of the nation if much credence would be given to it and ingrained with focus on profitable personal development. Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing through it.
The term “sustainable development” is defined as development to achieve the needs of present generation without compromising future generation’s needs, while we are misusing the resources in a very vital manner, which is not good for the present generation and as well as to the future generation. ‘Future Generations’ is mainly related to the environmental problems of resource consumption and pollution and their distribution over long time horizons. In this paper we focus on strategies for sustainable development which are necessary for survival of and our present generation as well as coming generation. And also emphasise on how to improve the quality of life of both current and future generations, while safeguarding the earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity.
Face-to-Face Versus Computer-Mediated Communication: Exploring Employees’ Preferences of Effective Employee Communication Channel
Total Views: 4,327
New communication technologies have changed the communication media use in organisations. It is important to examine the impact of technology in the workplace and how it affects the communication with the employees and whether the technology has replaced the traditional medium of communication, which is face-to-face. This paper is an examination of the communication channels use in employee communication of five Malaysian organisations.The participants claimed that face-to-face communication is effective for relationship building with managers and dissemination of work-related information to colleagues; and majority of the participants perceived that face-to-face communication is a more effective employee communication channel compared to computer-mediated communication.
This book is an attempt to understand why people have started writing at such tremendous length on individual pictures. Before the 20th c., one of the longest texts on a single painting was Vasari’s description of Leonardo’s “Last Supper.” In the last forty years it has become common for historians to write entire books on individual artworks. Why have we started experiencing images as so complex? Why do they seem to us like puzzles, waiting to be solved? Why doesn’t it concern us that previous generations did not think of writing at such length?
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