My New Year's Research Resolutions

Forfatter	Melding
Stephen Seiler, professor, Institute for Folkehelse, Idrett, og Ernæring	18. november 2009 14:21:43 My New Year's Research Resolutions I really enjoy my job. I love watching masters students develop their skills, their confidence in the research process and their ability to produce research that meets international standards. I also really enjoy talking about research and presenting my research in an international setting. And I do love the challenge of scientific writing, although I admit that sometimes my relationship to scientific writing is one of those love-hate kind. Unfortunately things are going to have to change. I want that 50% research time by golly! Perhaps it is more a matter of pride than anything else, since I usually make time for what I think is important anyway. Nevertheless, my new year's resolution for 2010 has 4 points: 1. I vow to stop using time and energy helping students to get their work accepted for presentation at international congresses. In 2009 I had 13 congress abstracts published and most of these were with students as presenters. Screw that. All that kind of work gives me ZERO personal publication points (PPP henceforth) ! 2. I vow to turn down all invitations to speak at international congresses. Man that is a lot of work preparing a quality presentation. Sure , it is cool to get invited, it seems to say something about how one's research is viewed, it seems to serve as great marketing for the faculty, and connections are made that can often lead to future research cooperation. But, it takes too much time to do really well, and it gives ZERO PPP. 3. I vow to NOT accept any invitations to review journal manuscripts for international journals, no matter what level they are in the Norwegian system. Reviewing 10-15 papers a year keeps you in touch with the cutting edge of things in your research field, and it helps keep the scientific process going. But, it takes a helluva lot of time and gives SQUAT, NADDA, ZERO PPP. Forget that. 4. Finally, I am kicking myself for taking on a coauthor from another institution for that review I article I just published. The article IS better, even if I wrote 90% of it. Adding his voice to the mix and the elements he added to the article was a great move if I count readers and consider the feedback. But, that bastard (ok, he is actually a really nice guy) took half my DBH points! Come to think of it, coauthors suck. I published 3 journal articles this year, including a level 2, but only got 1,03 PPP. From now on, no more of these PPP-poor articles with 3 co-authors from 3 countries! I vow to be much more egocentric and cynical in my choice of research article projects. AND, come to think of it, I DO NOT OWE masters students anything. Once they turn in an oppgave, I own that bad boy! No need to include them as coauthors on manuscripts! What was I thinking? Oh yeah baby, with a few adjustments to my research priorities, I am going to be pumping out PPP, and raking in FoU time! Hmmm come to think of it ......I am going to miss my old research life I'm afraid.

Forfatter

Melding

Stephen Seiler, professor, Institute for Folkehelse, Idrett, og Ernæring

18. november 2009 14:21:43

My New Year's Research Resolutions

I really enjoy my job. I love watching masters students develop their skills, their confidence in the research process and their ability to produce research that meets international standards. I also really enjoy talking about research and presenting my research in an international setting. And I do love the challenge of scientific writing, although I admit that sometimes my relationship to scientific writing is one of those love-hate kind.

Unfortunately things are going to have to change. I want that 50% research time by golly! Perhaps it is more a matter of pride than anything else, since I usually make time for what I think is important anyway. Nevertheless, my new year's resolution for 2010 has 4 points:

1. I vow to stop using time and energy helping students to get their work accepted for presentation at international congresses. In 2009 I had 13 congress abstracts published and most of these were with students as presenters. Screw that. All that kind of work gives me ZERO personal publication points (PPP henceforth) !

2. I vow to turn down all invitations to speak at international congresses. Man that is a lot of work preparing a quality presentation. Sure , it is cool to get invited, it seems to say something about how one's research is viewed, it seems to serve as great marketing for the faculty, and connections are made that can often lead to future research cooperation. But, it takes too much time to do really well, and it gives ZERO PPP.

3. I vow to NOT accept any invitations to review journal manuscripts for international journals, no matter what level they are in the Norwegian system. Reviewing 10-15 papers a year keeps you in touch with the cutting edge of things in your research field, and it helps keep the scientific process going. But, it takes a helluva lot of time and gives SQUAT, NADDA, ZERO PPP. Forget that.

4. Finally, I am kicking myself for taking on a coauthor from another institution for that review I article I just published. The article IS better, even if I wrote 90% of it. Adding his voice to the mix and the elements he added to the article was a great move if I count readers and consider the feedback. But, that bastard (ok, he is actually a really nice guy) took half my DBH points! Come to think of it, coauthors suck. I published 3 journal articles this year, including a level 2, but only got 1,03 PPP.
From now on, no more of these PPP-poor articles with 3 co-authors from 3 countries! I vow to be much more egocentric and cynical in my choice of research article projects. AND, come to think of it, I DO NOT OWE masters students anything. Once they turn in an oppgave, I own that bad boy! No need to include them as coauthors on manuscripts! What was I thinking?

Oh yeah baby, with a few adjustments to my research priorities, I am going to be pumping out PPP, and raking in FoU time! Hmmm come to think of it ......I am going to miss my old research life I'm afraid.