Seems like we could all do with some distraction and silliness right now, so I'm going to go ahead and tweet the entirety of the Academia Obscura book ๐
[thread, obviously]
(still haven't finished)
Here's what's coming:
โ
An academic blessing ๐๐
1
Still the greatest figure of all time ๐
5
Publish and/or perish
10
14
More tomorrow! Stay safe everyone x
Good morning all :) Day two, here we go!
Forgot that I had a photo of the EDITORS BREED MOORE book ๐
(a couple of tweets back)
16. Writing is hard (co-authoring is harder)
Hellish author lists ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฑ
A Few Goodmen
19. Croquet and the Big Bang
"A curious ancient pastime"
You know you're tired when you forget the names of your co-authors and where your funding comes from ๐
22. Abstracts
Still can't believe they thought this was an appropriate graphical abstract for a scientific paper.
WHAT๐THE๐HELL๐IS๐WRONG๐WITH๐YOU
This is how you write a concise abstract
also this
and this
Will carry on a little bit later... If this format isn't working for you, I'd be happy to send you a pdf/ebook (though you will of course miss out on all the additional images and colour commentary!).
DM here/@MarinePolicy or email glenwwright (gmail)
25. Well-prepared cat
And again for those at the back: a well-prepared cat
26. Figures
wtf
29
oops
Obscure interlude...
First page of the Blackawton bees paper, perhaps the only article in a scientific paper to be written by school kids
The @royalsociety published the kids' hand-drawn figures in the journal, which is just lovely
34. @starwars research
"Emperor Palpatine considered that the true power of the technological terror is from the power of economic terror unleashed in the case of its failing; i.e., in case of the Rebel Alliance succeeding, an automatic financial attack on the entire Galaxy would be realized."
Figure 2.1: Not a moon!
Using @starwars supporting characters to teach about psychopathology
Evolving ideals of male body image as seen through action toys
37.
Rent a paper, just $6 an hour ๐
43.
Potatoes, they are important
Quarantine reading
Dr Merry Jeans ๐
Strategically titled journals, by @redpenblackpen
"It is early in the year, but difficult to imagine any paper overtaking this one for lack of imagination, logic, or data โ it is beyond redemption."
Ouch.
Peer review, by @redpenblackpen
How to respond to peer review
That time Einstein rejected a rejection
Always reviewer 2 ๐
'The Dawn of Peer Review' - more excellent academic humour from @redpenblackpen
Quick-fire Interview with @Protohedgehog
64. Retractions
The infamous LaCour scandal, first reported by @RetractionWatch
The bizarre story of Diedrek Stapel. NYT article here: nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magโฆ
What is with tin foil?
Interview with @ivanoransky, founder of @RetractionWatch
Good morning everyone :) Hope you are managing to stay sane and healthy. More pages to come today, starting with the Sokal affair and other journal hoaxes:
78.
The original SciGen paper is here: pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigenโฆ
Credit: @mbeisen
Unsub-f*cking-scribe
Interview with @melissaterras about depictions of academics in kids books. Very cool!
"She had enough university degrees to paper her toilet walls. Some people said she was a genius. Some people said she was a nutter." ๐
๐ Professor Blabbermouth on the Moon, by Nigel Watts, illustrated by Jamie Smith (Scholastic Childrenโs Books 1996)
Figure 11: The Professor's Lecture
๐ Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893)
Check out @melissaterras blog for 41 pages of such whimsical depictions of academics in kids books: โฆmiainchildrenspicturebooks.tumblr.com
Here is a great summary of the project and her findings: melissaterras.org/2014/02/05/malโฆ
You can also check out @melissaterras books here: melissaterras.org/2018/10/29/acaโฆ
(both open access!)
Here are some of my favourites โค๏ธ๐
๐ Professor de Breeze
๐ Dr Seuss, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (Random House Books for Young Readers, 1973)
๐ Professor Peabody
๐ Professor Peabody, by Giles Reed, Illustrations by Angela Mitson (Studio Publications (Ipswich) Limited, 1979)
๐ Professor Goggles
๐ Topsys and Turvys, by Peter Newell (1893)
๐ Professor Wiseman
โฆmiainchildrenspicturebooks.tumblr.com/post/918729431โฆ
This academic turned ripped street-shark is a lot to process
(The Birth of Dr Piranoid, adapted by Cynthia Alvarez from the screenplay by Martha Moran. Illustrated by Serrat Studio. Random House, New York 1995.)
I... appear to have messed up the threading here... maybe? Continues ๐
24. Footnotes [missed a page!]
๐ง๐ง๐ง
Strong correlation between beard length and skirt length ๐ง๐๐ค
Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men, American Society for Microbiology (1967)
On to academic writing now, a chapter that contains some of my favourite nuggets of academic ridiculousness :)
CORRECTION!: frequency of beards and skirt width
Key words: enough; already.
An unreasonably long footnote
Figure 13. The Writing Process (@redpenblackpen)
The Isolator
Science & Invention magazine (1925)
Self-treatment of "Writer's Block", a brief review of the literature.
ยกยกยก
Abstract indeed
โค๏ธ
[mini side-thread of unusual acknowledgments]
Thanks to the anonymous reviewers ๐ต๏ธโโ๏ธ๐ต๏ธโโ๏ธ๐ต๏ธ
Thanks for nothing ๐ก๐คฌ
Thanks to the burglars that stole, inter alia, my cheese ๐ง
Thanks for the cocaine!
Thanks for the ongoing and unwavering support.
Thanks for the wine ๐ท
Thanks for the 4.5-year long review process ๐
Thanks Bush administration.
Thanks for rejecting my grant proposals.
Thank you for not sending us the money.
A plague on their house ๐๐๐๐ก
Selected p-value workarounds
112.
Fuck
Fuck nuance
SEXWASP ๐
References:
Academic translator
Praxis
"I need a full-length Atlantic Salmon. For science."
Full paper here: prefrontal.org/files/posters/โฆ
Depressed salmon is depressed :(
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10โฆ
"Those who can,
do.
Those who canโt,
teach.
Unless you are an academic,
in which case,
you probably have to teach,
regardless of your ability."
Novel grading strategies
๐๐๐ถ
Golden retrievers with party hats on
More novel grading strategies
Wasting time on the internet
Table 5: Underwater basket-weaving and other Mickey Mouse classes*
Social Theory through Complaining, by @kjhealy
134. Read the Syllabus!
Making the grade
THE POLAR BEARS MADE ME DO IT
135. Rate My Professors
*
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Full story:
Food, glorious food ๐ฅฆ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฅฎ๐ฅก
๐ซ A lovely cup of tea โ๏ธ
Impact & outreach
Coffee + amphetamines = math
Keeping up with the Kardashians
Alternative impact metrics
Self-citation
"Like nuclear energy, the impact factor is a mixed blessing."
~ Eugene Garfield
Spooky science, a little late for Halloween...
Extract from "Sport in Vampire Society"
Academics have taken to Twitter like a duck to Twitter
Cool folks to follow: @AstroKatie @TheLitCritGuy @ResearchMark @AcademicsSay @IAmOxfordComma @AcademicBatgirl
An interview with @AcademicBatgirl. POW!
The dark side of academic Twitter
A summary of my favourite academic twitter hashtags:
#AcademicsWithCats
#BadAdviceForYoungAcademics
#RuinADateWithAnAcademicInFiveWords
#FailAPhdInThreeWords
#ScienceAMovieQuote
#AcademicForecast
#AcademicNovel
"My music professor makes us stay after class and play Twister with him to make up attendance. Dead serious. I find a problem with this, no?"
โค๏ธ๐
Academic conferences: "Custom dictates that the majority of panels feature only male speakers; that slides should be overfilled, illegible, and written by the speaker on the way to the conference; and that audience questions should actually be long-winded comments"
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.