We've all suspected this one, but here's an actual experiment: if the people deciding on grant proposals get only a 1-page summary instead of the full proposal, it doesn't really make any difference. 😑
(Probably even more noteworthy: even if both panelists see the full proposal, they're only in agreement 53.4% of the time, which is basically random chance 🙄)
So it's all one big lottery, who would have thought.
If you are gonna nitpick authors about an arbitrary overlap percentage in Crossref reports, then don’t run the report including the affiliations, author list, references, standard disclosures, and mandatory statements in the cover letter (not even part of the manuscript!) all counting toward the overlap.
So annoying. Authors are stuck dealing with manuscripts that obviously do not have problems with text borrowing
Apparently one of the most common uses of LLMs in #academia is copy editing: cleaning up your #writing on points of spelling, grammar and style. This is wildly unattractive to me. I love writing. My personal style, my personal voice, are extremely high priorities to me. It annoys me no end when a journal editor replaces one of my unconventional style choices with something bland. If an editor ran a paper of mine through an #LLM I would scream bloody murder.
Did I share this here earlier? Over 1300 Jewish faculty urged against turning "Antisemitism Awareness Act" into US law
"Criticism of the state of #Israel, the Israeli government, policies of the Israeli government, or Zionist ideology is not – in and of itself – antisemitic. We accordingly urge our political leaders to reject any effort to codify into federal law a definition of #antisemitism that conflates antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel"
Sure #academia can be toxic at times and all of that.
Also:
this week I sat several times together with colleagues from Russia and Ukraine to discuss future possible projects.
an iranian told me how it was to be in Tehran at the end of April, when the Isreel-Iran situation escalated.
yesterday at my dinner table there were 1. an italian 🙋♂️ 2. a german 3. a brazilian 4. a kroatian 5. an iranian , and it was awesome to discuss the state of the world from all points of views.
Just a reminder that adding “young” (or “old”, for that matter) in a job ad is discriminatory. Why not write down something that the candidate can actually work on improving instead, and that has something to do with the job you’ll ask them to do?
"We call upon our colleagues in the homeland and internationally to support our steadfast attempts to defend and preserve our universities for the sake of the future of our people, and our ability to remain on our Palestinian land in Gaza. We built these universities from tents. And from tents, with the support of our friends, we will rebuild them once again."
Over the past few years, Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 150 bills in 35 states that seek to curb academic freedom on campus. Twenty-one of these bills have been signed into law. #Academia#HigherEd#Colleges
How can we improve #accessibility for scientific conferences? This short guide by Ulla McClurg covers many of the issues that organisers (and attendees) can consider.
🐧Thinking of Switching to the Linux, Fellow Academics? | @rwg
"I should note I’m in the humanities, not computer science, so I’m using Linux mainly to write, research, and collaborate with other authors doing social science work. And it’s also important to note that I have worked at “Microsoft Campuses” for my whole career, meaning most of my colleagues use Windows and the IT folks support mostly Windows."
En route to #Geneva to attend a #PhD jury at the Geneva #observatory, which is located near the French border outside Geneva.
Instead of renting a #car, as I used to do in the past, this time I’m renting… a bike to go from the station to my #hotel (about 16km away) and the diary to the observatory.
This is a very good piece by a colleague accusing university presidents of lying, in their own narrow self-interest, about what's happening on campuses. Their craven behavior barely protects them and makes everyone else far less safe. Including Muslim and Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
Academic associations: when you are looking for graduate students to do work for a conference, perhaps don't offer an honorarium equivalent to less than minimum wage in 12 out of 13 provinces and territories.
That's not even counting the unknown (uncompensated?) time for the mandatory orientation session.
Friends in #academia, my week: The last day of classes was yesterday, the first day of finals is tomorrow. Of course, there's a school all-hands meeting and a dept faculty meeting today, thus proving that administration absolutely doesn't teach or think about teaching. (I skipped the former, it's always creative numbers and affirmations, but the latter has some important stuff in it, so I'm zooming in while I finish up a final.)