Efficient Academic

A Welcome relief from YouTube and its clones!

PLOS Biology has come out with a very interesting and informative Editorial on Open Access. I must confess that my knowledge of Open Access was just what the words suggest – free access to research publications. But after going through this editorial i have learnt what true Open Access is all about, and definitely its not just about free access to the research publications. An indispensable read.

Worth a visit. See the best of Science Images for 2007 selected by the National Science Foundation and the Science magazine.Well if you aren’t curious enough here’s a sample

Lifehack turned with yet another fantastic post. I always decide to read atleast 3 research papers a week – and sometimes i do but then unlike rushing through a paperback novel reading an academic paper isn’t a simple process.Here is a post to help you make the most out your reading time.

The Scientist Magazine is now taking nominations for the best Lab web pages. They have also put up a list of staff nominations or selections which are really some of the best designed as well as presented webpages. Gone are the days when Research groups had webpages which could compete with budding school kid designer wannabes. If you need to attract attention and interest (not to forget young talented grad students) to your research then the Internet is one of the strongest avenues available – But if you’re gonna end up with a webpage designed in the most antiquated way then you lose a considerable audience and their interest in your work.

Most students lookup Lab or research group websites to not see if it would suit their research aptitude but also the atmosphere that prevails in the research group (yes, putting up photos from your group’s barbecue party definitely helps!).Also when you apply to a new position inevitable your employer would look up your group’s page, eventhough you provide an exhaustive Curriculum Vitae.

Yet another important part of the audience in the school kids who is looking to perform more in his class assignment and is directed to your group page by google – Oh..if you’re not on google, you don’t exist (so watch what you put in as the meta tags) . Now this is the curious kid who eyeball’s your sight for interesting yet easy to understand information. If you have a lengthy description of your research interest with dense graphs sprinkled here and there, Sorry! that’s not going to attract anybody let alone the school kid.

You can visit the nominations page to not only to recommend your favorite group pages but also see how people present information in the most interesting and appealing manner.

The moment i read this post by Shane, i remembered one of my friends who was a designer and he always had this acoustic setup where tropical forest noises enveloped the room – he suggested that it was really refreshing for long hours of work as well as boost one’s creativity. Well then i wasn’t sure how it would help people in Academia? From Shane’s post i am thinking about trying out this technique. ‘Noise for Academics‘ is an interesting post, with nifty links to try your hand at acoustic nirvana.

Oh by the way i would like to add just one more to the links already in the post – Pzizz !

PS: oh yes the title is a rip off