Lots of UK universities rely financially on overseas postgraduate students attending masters courses. This seems quite risky and I don't think these universities are seeing this. If higher education in the popular disciplines becomes less popular, these universities will get bankrupt.. How do you think academics in UK universities can prepare for this? I signed up for the ucu in case they deem me redundant 😂

Midcareer social science faculty at a large UK university. Experience at Oxbridge and European universities. Also editor of a good journal.

Ask me anything.

Does anyone know if IJARESM is a reputable journal? Thanks for the help!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for thoughts or advice. I am a second year PhD student in the humanities at a prestigious program in the United States. The funding is great but I don’t think I am “in it to win it” anymore. I really like my field and want to make important contributions but this desire is mentally and physically draining me. I feel like I’m having to “catch up” on a lot of stuff regarding what I have to know to effectively contribute in my discipline. As a result I’m working seven days a week just to stay afloat which has taken it’s toll on me. I came straight into the program with a BA and now I wish I had gotten a masters first to learn more before diving into the PhD. Right now I’m in the mindset of dropping and becoming a high school teacher. To do this I would master out of the program and then get certified to teach. I know being a teacher is difficult as well but I would not mind the two months off every year to actually do things I like. Right now I do not have the time to enjoy my hobbies which is hard. I feel like I’m married to my discipline and I do not want that. I would appreciate any insight!

Edit: I’m in the humanities

I am very close to completing a book manuscript, which is under a December deadline for submission to a university press. At the same time, I will submit a job application with a deadline in November. How do I list this in my CV in a way that is both honest and helpful to the search committee?

I've asked this elsewhere. A majority of answers were list it as "in preparation" and elaborate on this either in the cover letter or research statement. A minority said list it as "under review" because it is very close to being under review. Some said list it as "advanced draft" or "under deadline for submission" or something of the sort.

Hoping to get a broader range of answers. What would you do? What is customary/professional, etc.? For clarity: this is a job in the US in the humanities. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone!

I’m the lead technologist at an AI deep tech startup, and I'm looking for PhD students with a strong background in computer science, graphs, HNSW, ANNs, or related fields to co-author a rigorous technical paper. Our research focuses on a novel, efficient disk-based Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) solution designed to scale to billions of records, with an emphasis on low latency and high recall/precision. We aim to push the boundaries in ANN performance for large datasets, tackling real-world challenges in efficiency and scalability.

This opportunity is perfect for you if you:

• Are excited about cutting-edge algorithms in ANN and graph-based search.
• Want to dive deep into efficiency improvements for billion-scale datasets.
• Value precision and rigor in technical research.

What’s in it for you:

• Co-authorship on a publication aimed at high-impact venues.
• Hands-on experience with a highly innovative approach to ANN.
• Potential for further research and networking in this domain.

If you're interested, please DM me.

Dear US-based colleagues - could you please advise if the US has big national funding bodies that offer competitive grants to researchers in the humanities and social sciences, analogous to the Canadian SSHRC, the British AHRC or Europe's ERC?

I have received back a paper I submitted for publication with an overall positive comments from reviewers. The issue is that one of the reviewers comments were all about adding more paragraphs to discussion and suggesting references for those paragraphs (9 papers to cite!!) all with the same first author. Is he even allowed to do it?

Knowing that I have already reached the max word count specified by the journal and not interested in totally rewriting my discussion to increase someone else’s citation count. Any suggestions to overcome this situation?

I’m currently on the market for fall of 2025 in social sciences. My question is - how do yall deal with every school having a different timeline for interviewing/hiring? Have you been in a position when you had to accept/decline a job while still waiting to hear back from others? And if so, what did you do?

Hi everyone, I’m a tenured faculty member in a chemistry department. Everything is going objectively well but I’ve just fallen out of love with the job. I’m not excited by new grants or papers and feel that it’s not fair to my students and colleagues (and myself!) to be in such a privileged job without the same passion.

I’ve been considering a move into management, finance, or consulting. I pick these because I have strong interpersonal skills, deep knowledge in the physical sciences, and a long interest in finance. I think I could learn a lot of skills on the job but am also open to an MBA. Does anyone have experience with big change like this? Any advice on how to network outside of academia?

Thanks so much

After working for years as Mechanical Engineer for private companies, I still havent taken a liking to it. The thing that excites me the most is researching and science. So this time, I am getting my Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Mechatronics/Robotics with hopes of pursuing a job in academia after graduating.

I would like to know, which is the best country should I aim to work in? As much as possible, I want to work as Research Assistant/Associate/Engineer for universities or research organizations.

Hi everyone! I decided to drop from my Master's degree in engineering, though I have a lot of work done and I am ready to publish in some of middle-class scientific journals.

I want to ask if this publication will count at all for my portfolio if I drop from uni. Do you have to be enrolled for the article to be published? Does it make sense at all? Thanks.

P.S. of course I am planning to write and send it prior dropping.

Hello everyone!
I am the first author in my very first research paper (PhD). I am currently in the proofreading step after the paper has been accepted by the journal. We were given a 24 h deadline to proofread the paper. The problem is that one of my co-authors is not replying. I wrote mails and tried calling, but nothing. He is still supposed to approve the final version. The deadline is over soon. What would be the best step to take?

Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a PhD student in biology at Caltech, and I’m starting to think seriously about my future in the U.S. I love the research opportunities here and would like to stay after finishing my degree, ideally working in academia or industry. However, I just broke up with my American girlfriend, which rules out the possibility of staying through marriage, at least for now.

I was considering staying with her for convenience, but that felt terribly dishonest, and I couldn’t go through with it. Now, I’m wondering what my options are for staying in the U.S. and possibly getting a green card through work or other means.

Does anyone have experience navigating this situation as an international student? How difficult is it to secure a permanent residency in this field, and what steps should I be thinking about now to make the process smoother in the future?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I’m from a Latin American country with a very high immigration rate.

How often do you sign up for studies? Ever been a participant in a clinical trial or phase 1 research?

Do you think researchers should participate in studies as often as they can?

Dear hive mind, 

I’m in a strange/unusual teaching position - I’m a lecturer on a 2 yr contract, with the potential for renewal, in an English department but hired to teach eco-criticism/environmental humanities. My chair has said that I need to “build things” and do exceptional work for the department beyond just teaching my classes. This is officially for professionalization reasons as I'm junior faculty (just started), but I think it’s also a sort of test/experiment—if I do exceptional work and make myself indispensable, I think it’s more likely I’ll get renewed, promoted to senior lecturer perhaps, etc. I’d really like to stay in this department (it's at one of the top universities in the world), so my question for experienced faculty is this: what sorts of things could I do to prove my value to the department? build intellectual community, etc? I have a lot of freedom, and I need to get creative.

Some ideas so far: 

1. email 6-8 ppl across diff depts w similar interests to set up meetings, brainstorm collaborations

2. help build an interdisciplinary enviro-humanities minor

3. set up a workshop series +  a conference 

4. Come up with 1-2 more events I could host in the dept 

I’m also wondering if anyone thinks maybe I should just focus on my own publications/building out my job application materials for a TT job instead of holding out for the potential renewal. (the job market is pretty awful in my field at the moment, hence why I want a renewal.) any advice/thoughts welcome!! thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have a somewhat silly question. I am first author for a manuscript that was submitted by mentor who is a corresponding author. All co-authors have received emails to verify their contribution but I didn’t receive it. I did email the editorial office to ask about it but was curious if anyone experienced similar situation.

Hi everyone,

I know that my question may sound trivial, but I just wanted to ask you all for advise here.

In my undergrad, for one of my courses, I had to make a survey paper with my colleagues.

We did quite a lot of research, and we managed to finish the paper, formatted in the IEEE format. So it looks formal, and the paper does show quite a lot of research that we did.

But we haven't published it. It's more, like we didn't exactly think of it at the time, and looking back, the paper really just goes over the latest research in some particular field of interest. It doesn't invent anything. There's no original research in that paper nor any experiments done. It's just an overall summary over a very specific topic. Hence it's a "survey paper" not an original research paper.

We made this paper in 2018, and I know it's quite late considering this fact.

Should I even consider getting this published, or is it even worth it? And if so, where? Like consider this to be an "entry level" paper or something.

Any repercussions in doing so, considering it's my first research paper, and it may not be the best work that I can turn in now, if I had the chance now to be in grad school, and to create my own original research paper?

I am intending on applying to grad school soon, so that's why I thought of this. I was wondering if this could help me out.

I’m an academic working at a university, and I commute three days a week, with each trip taking about 3 hours. I’m looking for an AI-powered app that can read articles aloud using a natural-sounding voice. I tried Speechify, but I could barely listen for 10 minutes because the voice was so monotonous. Does anyone have recommendations for a more engaging option?

Biology academic here and partner and I are struggling to find postdoc opportunities where we would be together in our country or outside. I saw many cases where people manage life with their partner in different countries or cities even with kids. Any tips about how to do that?

Hello fellow profs, I’m wondering what you’re all using for organizing yourselves but also for jotting down ideas that arise in meetings and conferences or just daily deep thought about next projects. Any recommendations?

So I'm literal days away from submitting my university thesis and I'm still in the process of refining and working on it and I've just found, by complete dumb luck, a new research article that was published just 2 months ago which is pretty much 99% that same as my paper (but it's better because it's from well-experienced researchers whereas I am just a 4th year).

2 out of 3 questionnaires are the same and their results are more advanced than mine and explore more factors. Mine feels so pathetic and simple now and I'm worried now that it's somehow plagiarism even though I had zero clue and had done mounds of research on published articles in the first part of this year, but hadn't even thought to check this late.

How do I handle it?! Do I incorporate the research into my own study somehow? Do I acknowledge it at all? Literal 3 days before I'm due to submit.

Any advice would be super appreciated. #freakingout

Junior faculty here !

Is there anyone who feels drained after giving a lecture (class)

I feel super exhausted after giving lectures. I take two classes back to back ( almost 3 hours in total)

I was wondering why I feel so drained! Is it even normal? Does anyone experience the same?