Unpopular opinions in academic research
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*** This is post 51! I can’t believe it’s been almost a year of regular posts for my blog. Check back next week for a little celebration and a giveaway. ***
Where do you get your “best” ideas? Mine often come while I’m in the shower. Weird, but it is what it is. It’s got to be something about the sound of the water and lack of other stimuli that just lets my brain wander and solve problems that I can’t otherwise sort out.
Well, it happened again. Every week, as I think about a new post, I find myself wading through a litany of personal “beefs” with academic research before settling on a topic that hopefully some of you find helpful. These are often related to the kind of week I’ve had, but some of them reflect what it’s like to work within an old institution like higher education, which is also a large and complex bureaucracy.
One of the things that I both love and hate about higher education today is that it’s built on traditions. In some respects, this is cool and makes me so grateful to get to be a part of this long line of people dedicated to advancing knowledge and improving our lives. However, higher education can also be frustrating because those very traditions prevent us from questioning whether something is still working for us and the society we live in today.
So, I thought I’d benefit my future self by getting some of these sticky topics out of my mind and onto metaphorical paper. So here are my top three “Unpopular Opinions about Academic Research”.
1. Just because you think something is interesting and there is a gap in the literature doesn’t make it a good research idea.
2. Research questions should drive the research methods you choose (not methods driving questions).
3. Publications help you keep your job; science communication makes your science matter.
Do you agree or disagree with my unpopular opinions? What might you add? Together, let’s free up some mental space so we can focus on getting our work done, and maybe together we can change the conversation.
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