Monday, May 27, 2013

www.phd2published.com - Academic publishing advice for first timers

http://www.phd2published.com/ - Academic publishing advice for first timers.

This website offers a friendly and nonthreatening way to gain insight into the world of academic publishing. It is unique in that it offers useful advice in areas that are otherwise left with vague instructions. For instance, how to write a peer review:


They also offer "top tips" on pitching and publishing, and the title of all these posts start with "how to be a hackademic." Their advice ranges from "be adaptable" to "don't eat junk food", "write in moderation", "drink more alcohol", and "hack your time".



Of course this advice is to be taken with a grain of salt, since it's hard to judge the quality of the advice with it being self-published blogging. But it does offer insight into the background of the editors, so you can judge for yourself whether or not it's trustworthy! 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/ - UCLA Statistical Computing

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/

I know that many of my student readers are beginning to utilize statistical software packages more as they enter into higher levels of their research process. One website that has been priceless for me as I learned how to use Stata was UCLA's Statistical Computing website. They offer so much detailed and useful information on a range of software packages, it would be hard to capture all of what they offer in this blog post. Here's an example of what they offer for SPSS:


When I was learning Stata, I found it extremely helpful to go to their Stata page and search for the command I was trying to learn. Here's an example. If you search for the Stata command "egen", here's what you'll find:

The site also offers educational resources for the classroom, including textbook examples. They also have links to prior workshops now available online: 

This resource is not to be overlooked even for the seasoned researcher, as it provides an easy to navigate refresher of common and not-so-common commands and analyses. Put it on your bookmarks list!