Hiring Criteria in Biology Departments of Academic Institutions

Fleet, Christine M.; Rosser, Meredith F.N.; Zufall, Rebecca A.; Pratt, Marney C.; Feldman, Tracy S.; Lemons, Paula P.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2006)056[0430:hcibdo]2.0.co;2

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Written communication and speaking are among the most important skills for young scientists to master; they are also the top ranked qualities expected in job applicants of biology departments in academic institutions (Fleet et al ). As a matter of course, graduate students may be expected to write articles for publication in scientific journals and give presentations at conferences, but the reach of those forms of communication is generally limited to other scientists in the field (Suleski & Ibaraki ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Science Communication Strategies for Graduate Students

Kuehne

Twardochleb

Fritschie

et al. 2014

Conservation Biology

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Development of skills in science communication is a well-acknowledged gap in graduate training, but the constraints that accompany research (limited time, resources, and knowledge of opportunities) make it challenging to acquire these proficiencies. Furthermore, advisors and institutions may find it difficult to support graduate students adequately in these efforts. The result is fewer career and societal benefits because students have not learned to communicate research effectively beyond their scientific peers. To help overcome these hurdles, we developed a practical approach to incorporating broad science communication into any graduate-school time line. The approach consists of a portfolio approach that organizes outreach activities along a time line of planned graduate studies. To help design the portfolio, we mapped available science communication tools according to 5 core skills essential to most scientific careers: writing, public speaking, leadership, project management, and teaching. This helps graduate students consider the diversity of communication tools based on their desired skills, time constraints, barriers to entry, target audiences, and personal and societal communication goals. By designing a portfolio with an advisor's input, guidance, and approval, graduate students can gauge how much outreach is appropriate given their other commitments to teaching, research, and classes. The student benefits from the advisors' experience and mentorship, promotes the group's research, and establishes a track record of engagement. When graduate student participation in science communication is discussed, it is often recommended that institutions offer or require more training in communication, project management, and leadership. We suggest that graduate students can also adopt a do-it-yourself approach that includes determining students' own outreach objectives and time constraints and communicating these with their advisor. By doing so we hope students will help create a new culture of science communication in graduate student education.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Science Communication Strategies for Graduate Students

Kuehne

Twardochleb

Fritschie

et al. 2014

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The hypothesis of “social effects on publication success” and supporting correlative results between beer consumption rates and publication success presented herein have direct bearing not only on assessments of publication biases but also on understanding of human behavioural ecology (Buss 2004). At research universities and institutes publication success is critical for (1) being hired, (2) staying employed and (3) being promoted to a higher position and ultimately a tenure as every researcher well knows first‐hand (see also Fleet et al 2006). To stay employed as a scientist and/or university teacher has important consequences for personal social status: e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists

Grim¹

2008

Oikos

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Publication output is the standard by which scientific productivity is evaluated. Despite a plethora of papers on the issue of publication and citation biases, no study has so far considered a possible effect of social activities on publication output. One of the most frequent social activities in the world is drinking alcohol. In Europe, most alcohol is consumed as beer and, based on well known negative effects of alcohol consumption on cognitive performance, I predicted negative correlations between beer consumption and several measures of scientific performance. Using a survey from the Czech Republic, that has the highest per capita beer consumption rate in the world, I show that increasing per capita beer consumption is associated with lower numbers of papers, total citations, and citations per paper (a surrogate measure of paper quality). In addition I found the same predicted trends in comparison of two separate geographic areas within the Czech Republic that are also known to differ in beer consumption rates. These correlations are consistent with the possibility that leisure time social activities might influence the quality and quantity of scientific work and may be potential sources of publication and citation biases.

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“…Our model outlines the prevailing wisdom in academia that selection acts primarily on research-based traits ( Fleet et al , 2006 ; Wilson, 2010 ). In other words, we assume that academics in the present system advance through career phases primarily by means of their publication and funding records and not based on their teaching practices.…”

Section: A Cultural Evolutionary Model Of Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lecture Machine: A Cultural Evolutionary Model of Pedagogy in Higher Education

Grunspan

Kline

Brownell

2018

LSE

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The benefits of student-centered active-learning approaches are well established, but this evidence has not directly translated into instructors adopting these evidence-based methods in higher education. To date, promoting and sustaining pedagogical change through different initiatives has proven difficult, but research on pedagogical change is advancing. To this end, we examine pedagogical behaviors through a cultural evolutionary model that stresses the global nature of the issue, the generational time that change requires, and complications introduced by academic career trajectories. We first provide an introduction to cultural evolutionary theory before describing our model, which focuses on how cultural transmission processes and selection events at different career phases shape not only who teaches in higher education, but also how they choose to teach. We leverage our model to make suggestions for expediting change in higher education. This includes reforming pedagogy in departments that produce PhD students with the greatest chance of obtaining tenure-track positions.

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Hiring Criteria in Biology Departments of Academic Institutions

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Practical Science Communication Strategies for Graduate Students

Practical Science Communication Strategies for Graduate Students

A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists

The Lecture Machine: A Cultural Evolutionary Model of Pedagogy in Higher Education

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