Academic articles
Here are some favorite academic articles. Unfortunately, many of them will require you have access to the databases, due to copyright restrictions.
Methods to start a creative process and generate ideas for research
There are many ways to contribute to theory and potentially fruitful avenues of research, and reading top research articles, it can seem obvious and self-evident. However, most people who have tried to come up with interesting research ideas, know it is far from...
Ways of Making a Theoretical Contribution
In the book: Theory Construction and Model building skills, Jaccard & Jacoby outline 16 ways to make a theoretical contribution when conducting research. These are introduced in chapter 3, and numbered from 1 to 16. Each is elaborated on in subsequent chapters. I...
Yet more on academic fraud: the case of Francesca Gino and Data Colada
There is fraud everywhere. There are some people want rewards they can not achieve without cheating. Some (possibly most) find ways to rationalize and justify their actions. The autobiography written by Diederik Stapel, where he tries to explain and admit his actions...
Advice on the basic parts of writing an article…
and indeed, most academic writing 🙂 https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~lp15/Pages/Scream.html Researcher, Don’t Make Your Readers Scream! Practically everybody who reads your research paper, referees especially, wants to know only a few basic things: What did you do?...
How we can spot emotions on how people walk
Status and emotions are quite easy to spot and identify, as is evaluating our own and others status. There is a website where you can look at a dot-drawing of people walking, based on biometric data. Amazing how easy it is to spot differences, also based on gender....
Peer review and journal rejection – a painful reality!
In the past year, I have had the dubious pleasure of having some of my papers rejected by journals. It is draining. First, A LOT of time and emotional energy goes into each paper. I scrutinize it before submission, and really believe in it. Then I go though the...
Crazy Hotness diagram – scientifically tested
A few years ago, I discussed the concept of the Crazy-Hotness line, popularized on How I Met Your Mother, with some colleagues. We had fun with it. Today I saw an article that actually tested the intuition behind this fun idea... and also look at the counteridea, for...
Applying for jobs.. the slog
Applying for an academic job is a little different from other jobs, especially in the amount of documentation some schools require. Academic CV’s are famously long. But then there are documents such as: research statement (2-6 pages) teaching statement diversity...
There are many ways to scientific fraud
An entertaining version of it was published ten years ago, by Neuroskeptic at: http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/11/9-circles-of-scientific-hell.html and since then, also as an article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691612459519 as both can be...
Tweet to increase our citation scores?
Citation scores are berated as being a poor predictor of article quality.. but still the best one available. Scholars are also often judged on citation scores. So the question of how to increase ones citation score is salient. The most important is of course to...
Advice through a PhD, from Oliver Williamson
We all know our PhD journey has been unique, special, just like the snowflakes we are. Reading the advice Oliver Williamson gave his phd students, makes me smile, it is advice I should have got during my journey. It would have been perfectly tailored to me. The essay,...
The importance of stupidity in scientific research
I think the Lego Gradstudent is brilliant! Very dark humour, but ohh so funny, especially if and when you feel a little down during your PhD journey. The creator made a video about the "impostor syndrome", that many experience at times. To watch it: I recently read an...
A manifesto for reproducible science
There are ohh-so many ways to mess up when conducting research, leading either intentionally or unintentionally, to false results. Open science, where every effort is made to allow others to check your work (put very simply) is on the rise. Here is a great article on...
Free access to research articles
Academic research is contingent on building on past findings, much published in academic journals. While researchers get nothing from the journals when they submit their work (indeed, some pay for the privilege to get published), it can cost a fortune to access the...
Scientific writing: “The C-word: Scientific euphemisms do not improve causal inference from observational data”
One of the first things taught in statistics, is that correlation does not imply causation. Indeed, to say something about causation, one basically needs experimental or quasi-experimental design. Unfortunately, this can be difficult, or impossible in many contexts....
How to review for a journal
Reviewing for the first time us daunting.. bit is a great learning opportunity and is part of the research life. Learning how to do so as constructively as possible is worthwhile. Here are some resources. This one gives some attitudes to have, structure to consider...
Concept clarity
Not read the article in full yet, though this article on concept clarity strikes a chord, having read a lot of articles where concepts change, and are mixed from one article to the next. Believe it is worth studying before writing up my next paper. :)...
How easy science findings can be misconstrued.. and have large consequences
.. or put differently: ALWAYS read the original study, and look at the variables, before basing your own research on past findings! Surprisingly often, authors make hefty claims based on their findings.. which may not always have as strong a basis. I have recently...
After the title, the abstract is possibly the most important part of an article: here are some thought on how to write it
With the ever growing wealth of research being published, when searching for relevant literature, many of us scan titles, and possibly abstracts to determine if we will read on. Crating a good abstract is obviously important. Here are some tips on how to write one....
“Interesting” research
There is a focus on producing so-called interesting research. This essay: Organizational sciences’ obsession with “that’s interesting!” Consequences and an alternative by Madan M. Pillutla and Stefan Thau They lay out an argument for why interesting findings and...
What is a “Meta Analysis”
Meta analysis' are often considered the gold standard for studies; a single study is never conclusive due to potential errors in design or data, whereas when results from many studies are systematically analyzed, they can be. Here is a YouTube series that goes through...
Endogeneity… What it is, and potential sources
Endogeneity has received attention in the past decade, as a significant source of bias in results reported in a wide variety of studies. Papers can now be desk rejected by top journals if there is reason to believe there may be endogeneity at play. Endogeneity refers...
Salami slicing.. how to, and not to publish articles on the same dataset
Having collected data, it can be tempting to publish several articles on the same dataset. However, there is a difference between publishing articles with clear overlap, and distinct studies. In short, when the overlap is sufficient so that the studies could have been...
On doing better science – Leader by Antonakis
John Antonakis is the new editor of Leaderhip Quarterly, and in his first leader, he lays out what he sees as important going forward, and possible perils in the field of leadership research. Quote from the article: Because of the incentive structures that...
“Why people prefer unequal societies”
In thier article, Starmans, Sheskin and Bloom presents the compelling argument that most people are concerned about fairness when it comes to distribution of resources, and prefer unequal outcomes, as long as there is a merit or needs based reason for the inequality....
The natural selection of bad science
This paper lays out the argument that flawed research design, methods and analysis (all be it unintentional) will yield results in greater volume and that are more novel and surprising; and thus, also greater rate of publishing. As publishing is a key factor in...
How should academics be evaluated?
Great article titled: "“Am I Famous Yet?” Judging Scholarly Merit in Psychological Science. An Introduction" by Robert J. Sternberg; which discusses the various metrics used, their shortcomings and what changes in how academics will be judged in the future. A good...
How to attend a conference
While interesting to go, my first academic conference did not exactly give me high returns on the investment. Did I "do it" in the best way possible? Definitely not. This article gives a quick summary of what I should been doing 🙂 In short: Define your goals Do your...
Building Effective Networks
Herminia Ibarra is a professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, and ranked as one of the most influential management thinkers, on one list as number 8. http://thinkers50.com/t50-ranking/2015-2/ In the linked 15 minute video, she presents her thoughts on...
Friends with academic benefits
This article studies college students, from a sociological perspective, using network theory analysis and qualitative work. The key findings: Student’s social networks fall into three types: tight knitters, compartmentalizes and samplers. Tight Knitters: all friends...