68: Friends don’t let friends believe in impact factors (with Nathan Hall)

Episode 68 · September 3rd, 2018 · 1 hr 14 mins

About this Episode

This episode includes part two of a chat with Nathan Hall (McGill University), who is the person behind the ’Shit academics say’ account (@AcademicsSay), which pokes fun of all the weird stuff that academics say. Before getting to the discussion, James and Dan answer two listener questions on grants and data cleaning.

Here’s what is covered in the episode:

  • People talk about papers all the time, but the grant process is not discussed openly—why?
  • Speaking to your funding body’s relevant program officer
  • Assembling a team that complements your weaknesses
  • Data carpentry and the tidyverse
  • Outlier analysis
  • Nathan Hall on big publishing
  • Upending the publication system by getting journals to bid for papers
  • Using peer review quality to judge the quality of journals
  • Debunking learning styes
  • Academics chasing after celebrity and hype
  • The cost of chasing academic prestige
  • Using twitter hashtags like #PhDChat and #ECRchat to learn more about the experiences of other people

Links
Data carpentry https://datacarpentry.org/
The paper with detailed code https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03811-x
The podcast conference https://www.soundeducation.fm/
Cern and comic sans https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/4/3136652/cern-scientists-comic-sans-higgs-boson
Shit Academics Say on twitter https://www.twitter.com/AcademicsSay
Nathan on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/prof_nch
Dan on twitter https://www.twitter.com/dsquintana
James on twitter https://www.twitter.com/jamesheathers
Everything Hertz on twitter https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcast
Everything Hertz on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/

Music credits: Lee Rosevere freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/

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