How to Succeed in Academics

9780124818330

0124818331

This is a how-to for the academic life based on more than 50 years of combined personal experience and 8 years of formal group mentoring as part of a workshop on these topics. The unwritten rules of university life are shared through fictional vignettes that are all too real. Secrets of successfully achieving short-term and long-term goals are found in the timelines that suggest milestones by which students may gauge their progress. Beginning with selecting a training program and choosing a job, this book takes the student, fellow, or faculty member through the maze of academic secrecy to a new level of understanding and empowerment. The reader gains insight into the mysteries of preparation, submission, and revision of grant proposals and manuscripts, as well as the presentation of abstracts, posters, and talks. Readers learn how to market themselves and their research throughout training to promotion and tenure. If students are unable to identify mentors, this book will provide helpful ideas. Because the basis of this book originated in the authors' How to Succeed in Academics Workshop, it can also be used to initiate discussions in similar programs. The material will empower the reader to accept the challenge of academic life, share ideas with others, and watch them grow and develop. Success is a process, and this book is a guide through this process in academics. Many of the lessons may be applied to other aspects of life as well.