I’ve been asked for some tips for publishing as a PhD student. So here are 7 things I've learnt. Take what you can use – feel free to add 😊 (thread) #phdchat#AcademicTwitter#AcademicChatter#phdlife
(1) Seek out co-authors
You learn so much from working with others! Find people you like to work with, have time for the project and pull their weight. Job titles are secondary.
(2) Aim for acceptance, not perfection
We’re all insecure about our work – especially in the beginning. If your co-author, mentor or reviewer is satisfied with your argument, you should be too!
(3) Start with a mid-range journal
For your first publication, you might want to consider a mid-range journal (open access if possible!). You chance of success is higher and you can use the experience when
aiming for the top.
(4) Believe in the significance of your work
When presenting a new idea, colleagues will often respond with a “meh.” They’re (also) caught up in their own work. Don’t be discouraged.
(5) Be inspired by disagreement
Inspiration often comes from disagreeing with prior works. Try harnessing that energy and pursue the research you feel is missing.
(6) Pursue side projects
Inspiration hits you when you least expect it. Try to follow it.
(7) Don’t stay up waiting
When you’ve submitted a manuscript, try focusing on something else. You can easily grow tired of your own paper. Use the (slow) peer review time to forget it a bit.
Hope this can be useful 😊. If you're interested, you can check out all my works here - and read most for free: johanfarkas.com/research
Glad this resonates 😊. For those interested, I also have a brand new article out with @andairamf about racism, hate speech and social media (open access!) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
Adding a few 😊: (8) seek out mentors (9) when receiving peer review, it often helps to wait at least 24 hours before you start revising/responding (10) When responding to peer review, address ALL comments - aim for "overwhelming" the reviewer with polite point-by-point responses
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🎉1 year since our book came out!🎉 I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the great research that has come out since, extending our findings and critique of post-truth discourses (a thread, 1/11)
2/11 In our book, we criticize the rise of censorship laws worldwide claiming to 'eradicate fake news.' Since then, @gabriellelim has published a brilliant study of Malaysia's now repealed 'Anti Fake News Law'. datasociety.net/library/securi…
3/11 In a German context, @MonseesLinda has done a great critical study of the fake news debate, showing how media discourses "legitimise security measures that control the spread of news and potentially harm free journalism" (p. 10) tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
Last year, a senior scholar reached out to me (a PhD student) to say he would unfollow me cause my tweets were too personal and boring. Based on this, I have a tip: Don't do that.
To be clear, people are more than welcome to follow and unfollow whoever they like. But don't DM people about it. And please recognise your position of power.
Wow. Glad this resonated with so many. Hope others will think twice. I don't have a SoundCloud. But I did publish a book, one year ago exactly actually. You can read about it here.
Lol. It happened again. A journalist calls me about COVID misinformation, and because I'm not as fearmongering as they hoped, they omit me from the article without telling me🙃
This time, it was about growing concern among Danes regarding the COVID vaccine. I said it's perfectly understandable why people are concerned, as vaccines are being developed at record speeds. And just because there's concern doesn't mean they'll refuse a vaccine when it's here
I also stressed that Denmark's own health authorities have raised concern multiple times in national media about some of the vaccines worldwide that are skipping normal procedure to be faster. So why is it so weird that the public is concerned as well?
Former Danish PM, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, called my arguments "completely crazy" on national radio, when I said Facebook hired her to try to avoid EU regulation. Now, she argues against regulation... cnbc.com/amp/2020/09/04…
My arguments and her reaction to it can be found here (In Danish): dr.dk/radio/p1/p1-mo…
And just to be clear: I am FIRMLY against censorship laws. But we desperately need regulation ensuring transparency around data practices, proper conditions for content moderation, regulation around micro-targeting and much more!
4 years ago, in response to being doxed and smeared by far-right activists for my work on racism, I made myself a website. Wanted to influence what people found. Now, it has had more than 10 000 views. Proud of what came out of that distressful experience. johanfarkas.com
Solidarity with everyone who experience doxing and attacks. We need to talk much more about this in academia - and build support networks!
At the time, I was only just finishing my Master's degree and had only published very little. My research on fake Muslim Facebook pages got some press coverage in Denmark, however. And that led to the attacks. I was certainly not ready and did not have a great support network.
I highly recommend this new report on Malaysia's (now repealed) fake news law. It extends two key conclusions from our book: (1) fake news has become a floating signifier used to delegitimise opponents, and (2) post-truth discourses have legitimised anti-democratic measures.
From the report: "our content analysis
revealed that BN used the label “fake news” primarily as a rhetorical tool, importing the meaning of the phrase from foreign figures and sources." (p. 6)
"In the case of “fake news,” BN’s securitizing moves relied heavily on images and rhetoric from abroad—much of which has been developed in English-language media from the US and Europe since 2016." (p. 8)